p. 155Martha J. Flint, an infant, by her next friend, James H. Kenton, vs. Thomas W. Flint.Headnote
Infants—Suit by Next Friend—Removal of Next Friend—Majority of Infant.Upon the infant plaintiff in a divorce action becoming of age after the award of a decree nisi, her next friend, suing for her, may, upon motion showing that she had become of age, be removed, and plaintiff be substituted to herself prosecute the suit to final judgment.
Judges Boyce and Rice sitting.Franklin Brockson for plaintiff.
Superior Court, New Castle County,Action for Divorce and a decree nisi was granted March 6, 1911. At the succeeding March Term of the court, before the expiration of one year from the granting of the decree, the attorney for the plaintiff and her next friend joining in the petition, moved for the removal of next friend and the substitution of the plaintiff to prosecute her suit to final judgment. Motion granted.
Martha J. Flint, an infant under the age of twenty-one years, by leave of the court, brought an action for divorce by her next friend K. to the January Term, 1911. She was awarded a decree of divorce nisi at the succeeding March Term. Brockson, attorney for the plaintiff and the next friend, presented to the court at the March Term, 1912, before the expiration of one year from the granting of the decree nisi, the following petition:
“And now, to wit, this fourth day of March, A. D. 1912, Franklin Brockson, attorney for Martha J. Flint, the plaintiff, and James H. Kenton, the next friend of said Martha J. Flint, in the above stated suit, suggests to the court here that the said Martha J. Flint is now over twenty-one years of age, and that she became twenty-one years of age on the sixteenth day of June, A. D. 1911, and the said Franklin Brockson, attorney for the said Martha J. Flint and James H. Kenton, as aforesaid, moves the court here to now remove from said suit the said James H. Kenton who was here
p. 156tofore duly admitted in the said suit by this court here to prosecute said suit as the next friend of the said Martha J. Flint, and to permit and authorize the said Martha J. Flint in her own name and right to prosecute said suit to final judgment.
“And the said attorney further moves the court here that the above suggestion and motion be entered upon the records of this court in said suit.”
In presenting the said petition, counsel for the plaintiff referred to the case of Baldwin, infant by, her next friend B., v. The Peoples Ry. Co., No. 24, May Term, 1907, 7 Penn. 81 , in which, during the pendency of said action the infant having died and counsel for the administrator of the deceased infant having presented a petition similar in form to the one here, the next friend was removed from said cause and the administrator of the deceased infant was substituted as plaintiff in said action.
Leave is granted to file the petition.
The court made the following order:
And now, to wit, this fourth - day of March, A. D. 1912, the within suggestion having been made and the said motion having been made to the court here and the same having been maturely considered by the court, it is ordered and decreed by the court that the said James H. Kenton who was duly admitted in the said suit, by the court here, to prosecute said suit as the next friend of the said Martha J. Flint, be, and he is hereby now removed from said suit as such next friend, and that said Martha J. Flint be, and she is hereby permitted and authorized to prosecute, in her own name and right, the said suit to final judgment; and it is further ordered and directed by the court that the said suggestion and motion and this order and decree be entered on the records of this court in said suit.