Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/525

 09 U. �Opinion of the Cobra Metropolitan Street Railway, 157 Missouri, 477. In that case it was held that the next friend was the party to make appli- cation and affidavit for a changd of venue from one state court to another, and the court said (p. 514): "Section 2261, Revised Statutes 1889, requires the appli- cation and affidavits to be made by the party, and it has been held that tills means the party in his own person and not by agent or attorney. gu{re v; Chillicothe, 89 Miouri, 226. But it has never been decided in case of an infant suing by his next friend that the appcation cannot be made by the next friend. . "A next friend is neither the agent nor attorney for his ward. An agent or attorney derives his authority as such from his principal, but an infant cannot appoint an agent and empower him to do an act which in contemplation of law he is himself 'incapable of doing. The next friend does not derive his an- thority from the infant, and his office does not rest on such authority, either express or implied. "It is because the law regards an infant incapable of con- ducting a law suit in his own behalf that it has made provisoions for the appointment of a next friend to act for him. The next friend dec,yes his authority from the court which appoints him, and as he is appointed to institute and conduct the suit it follows that he has authority to do every act which the in- terest of the infant demands and the law authorizes. If this statute is to be considered so strictly as to deny the next friend the authority to make an application for a change of venue, then we necessarily deny to infagts who are unable to act for themselves the equal protection with other litigants that the atute was designed to afford. Not only would this be rank injustice to a class for whose interests the law has always been watchful, but it wold raise a serious question as to the validity of the statute itself .... It is intended here to say that in the suit of an infant by his next friend, the next friend is the proper person to make the application for a chnoe of venue."

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