Department of Mental Hygiene v. Dunham

In settling the first account and report of the guardian of the estate, the court allowed the American Research Bureau the sum of $4,000 for services rendered the incompetent in locating him. From this order the Department of Mental Hygiene (hereinafter referred to as the department), as a creditor of the estate, appeals.

Frank O’Donnell, the incompetent, was committed to the Mendocino State Hospital several years ago, as in intemperate, and has been a patient of the hospitals of the department ever since. He had two sisters, or half-sisters, Hazel Ryker and May Dunham. On April 28, 1946,…