Once you think you have a graphics handle, you should examine its type property to determine whether it is a figure. Or you could use ancestor(TheHandle,'figure') to find the figure in case you were handed some other graphics object.
In your code you are operating on varargin . You should instead be operating on varargin{1} for the first parameter.
The correct property name is CurrentAxes not CurrentAxis . And you need to be careful because it can be empty for various reasons.
You should never assign to a variable named "gca" as doing so interferes with using the gca function.
In the case where you are handed a string, check is false, and you openfig() . That is fine so far once you correct varargin to varargin{1} . But after the "end" of the "else", you assume you can figure(varargin) and even if you figure(varargin{1}) you have made the assumption that you can figure() a string .
What you should be doing is assigning the output of openfig() to a variable, and then figure() the variable.
