New Jersey Statutes Appendix - Former Title 3A Administration of Estates Decedents and Others 3A § 6-36

The Superior Court may determine the mental incompetency of an alleged mental incompetent and appoint a guardian for his person, guardian for his estate or a guardian for his person and estate.

In any case where a guardian is to be appointed, letters of guardianship shall be granted to the spouse, if the spouse was living with the incompetent as man and wife at the time the incompetency arose, or to the next of kin, or if none of them will accept the letters or it is proven to the court that no appointment from among them will be to the best interest of the incompetent or his estate, then to such other proper person as will accept the same.