Art. 4234.Removal of Tutor

Removal reaches problems that surface after a validly appointed tutor is already serving, unlike Article 4231's disqualification, which addresses ineligibility from the outset, or Article 4232's revocation, which addresses a failure to ever qualify. Article 4234 lists broad grounds: a tutor who is or has become disqualified; a nonresident tutor who has not appointed the agent Article 4273 requires, or who has left the state permanently without appointing one; a tutor who has become incapable of discharging the duties of the office; a tutor who has mismanaged the minor's property; a tutor who has failed to perform any duty imposed by law or by court order; or, as an open-ended standard, any situation where removal would serve the minor's best interest.

The procedure protects the tutor's right to be heard. The court may act on its own motion, and must act on the motion of any interested party, ordering the tutor to show cause why removal should not follow. If the tutor cannot be served for any reason, the court appoints an attorney to represent the tutor, who is then served in the tutor's place, and the proceeding goes forward contradictorily against that attorney, keeping the process fair even when the tutor cannot be located.

Removal operates only going forward. Every official act the tutor performed before removal remains valid, protecting third parties, such as banks or purchasers, who dealt with the tutor in good faith before the removal took effect.