Friend Law and Legal Definition
A friend refers to a person attached to another by feelings of affection or personal regard. No particular degree of intimacy is required in order to show that the person starting the action be considered as the friend of an incompetent person. For all practical purposes a friend is in the same status as a guardian ad litem. [In re Wagner, 151 Mich. 74, 78 (Mich. 1908)]
“Friendship is a word of broad and varied application. It is commonly used to describe the undefinable relationships which exist not only between those connected by ties of kinship or marriage, but as well between strangers in blood, and which vary in degree from the greatest intimacy to an acquaintance more or less casual”. [Clark v. Campbell, 82 N.H. 281, 286 (N.H. 1926)]
The term is defined as ‘one favorably disposed’ in People ex rel. Bebro v. Bond, 104 A.D. 47, 48 (N.Y. App. Div. 1905). A man's wife can properly be regarded as his friend. The wife, as the friend of an insane husband, can employ the selectmen of a town to commit such insane person to the State asylum. [Davis v. Merrill, 47 N.H. 208 (N.H. 1866)].