Ex parte Lange

108 So. 2d 335, 268 Ala. 422, 1959 Ala. LEXIS 348
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 8, 1959
Docket6 Div. 107
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 108 So. 2d 335 (Ex parte Lange) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ex parte Lange, 108 So. 2d 335, 268 Ala. 422, 1959 Ala. LEXIS 348 (Ala. 1959).

Opinion

STAKELY, Justice.

^Filliam H. Lange filed his petition in this Court for a writ of mandamus to be issued to the Honorable Robert C. Giles, Circuit Judge, in Equity, praying this Court to direct Judge Giles to vacate an order entered by him on December 7, 1956, and to reinstate an order entered by him on August 20, 1956.

The rule nisi was issued by this Court. This case was argued and submitted for decision in this court on the petition for-mandamus to Judge Robert C. Giles and his answer to the petition. Although originally assigned to another Justice, the case was recently reassigned to the writer.

The facts alleged in the petition are that one Sara A. Lange died March 4, 1956, in Florida, leaving no descendants but leaving as her next of kin several brothers and sisters and descendants of deceased’s brothers and sisters; that one of the sisters is Mary Wanninger; that petitioner, William H. Lange, is a child of a deceased sister of Sara A. Lange, deceased; that Sara A. Lange, deceased, left personal property in a safety deposit box in Birmingham, Alabama, in an amount exceeding $15,000. The petition further alleges that on March 5, 1956, the petitioner in company with Mary Wanninger found in said safety deposit box a paper purporting to be a will executed by Sara A. Lange, deceased; that said will was deposited in the Probate Court of Jefferson County and the petitioner, William H. Lange, filed a petition to probate the same in the Probate Court of Jefferson County, Alabama.

In the meanwhile with full knowledge of the existence of said will, Mary Wanninger and her attorneys filed a petition in the Probate Court of Jefferson County for letters of administration to be issued to Mary Wanninger; that the petition for [424]*424letters of administration averred under oath “that said decedent left no last will and testament insofar as known or believed by said Mary Wanninger”; that the petition was filed and letters of administration issued to Mary Wanninger on March £0, 1956.

As soon as petitioner, William H. Lange, learned of the issuance of letters of administration to Mary Wanninger, he, William H. Lange, filed a petition for her removal. The grounds assigned in the petition are:

1. That at the time said petition for letters was filed, there was a will in existence executed by decedent and that Mary M. Wanninger knew that said will was in existence <and knew that said will named petitioner, William H. Lange, as executor.

2. At the time of the filing of said petition for letters, said will was in the safe of the Judge of Probate of Jefferson County.

3. That Mary M. Wanninger does not come within the purview of Title 61, § 81, Code of 1940.

Upon hearing of the petition for removal, G. C. Boner, Probate Judge, took the matter under advisement and ordered the property of the estate to be held in status quo. G. C. Boner subsequently resigned as Probate Judge without having decided the issues presented by petitioner’s petition.

At the setting of the hearing of the petition for probate of said will, Mary Wanninger together with another sister and brother, filed a contest of the will on the grounds that it had been executed by decedent while she was an unmarried woman and that she had subsequently married; and upon the further ground that decedent had executed a subsequent will revoking the will offered for probate. The will contest was transferred to the circuit court as provided by law and is presently pending before said court not having been set for trial.

Under the Alabama discovery statute, petitioner took the deposition of Mary M. Wanninger. She testified that she knew nothing of the existence of a subsequent will, that she knew no person who could testify as to the existence of any subsequent will, and further that she had no knowledge of said decedent having married subsequent to the execution of the will offered for probate, and that she had no knowledge of any person’s identity who had any knowledge of any marriage of decedent subsequent to the execution of said will.

On August 16, 1956, the Honorable Guy W. Hanna, Acting Judge of Probate, did, without formal order ex parte and without ruling on petitioner’s petition t6 remove said administratrix, verbally instruct Mary Wanninger that it would be all right for her to enter into normal activities as administratrix and to expend monies of said estate.

Upon learning of this development, petitioner, William H. Lange, on August 17, 1956, filed a petition in the Circuit Court of Jefferson County setting forth and averring all the foregoing facts and praying for the removal of administration to the circuit court and for an order to hold the estate in status quo pending a hearing in the circuit court on the petition for removal of administratrix. Upon presentation of said petition to J. Russell McElroy, Circuit Judge, he ordered said administration removed and further ordered that Mary M. Wanninger and her attorneys be ordered to cease from performing any act with respect to the disposition of any of the assets of said estate until further ordered by the circuit court. On August 20, 1956, Judge Robert C. Giles entered an order providing as follows:

1. That the restraining order issued by Judge McElroy be retained in effect pending further order of the circuit court.

2. That Mary M. Wanninger, Administratrix, is directed to file with the Register an inventory of the contents of decedent’s safety deposit box.

[425]*4253. That said administratrix make and file with the Register not later than September 7, 1956, a full and complete inventory of all assets of said estate.

The solicitor for petitioner filed on August 23, 1956, an amendment to his petition for removal. The amendment alleged that petitioner is a nephew of said decedent and is a legatee under the will and in the absence of a will, is one of the heirs. The prayer of the petition was amended to add that upon a final hearing of said petition, said Mary M. Wanninger be removed as administratrix and that the court make other orders and decrees necessary to the conservation of the estate.

Mary M. Wanninger has failed to file any responsive pleading of any nature to the averments of petitioner’s verified petition.

On November 28, 1956, Mary M. Wanninger filed a motion to rescind the restraining order. Said motion to rescind the restraining order was heard on December 7, 1956, by Honorable Robert C. Giles and on that date he entered an order modifying the restraining order as follows:

“It is, therefore, Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed that the Administratrix, Mary M. Wanninger, be, and she hereby is, authorized to pay out of such cash assets of the estate as may be in her hands, the routine and ordinary costs and expenses heretofore incurred by her in the way of premium upon her bond, costs of publication of notices, and the like. This authorization does not extend to the payment of any extra-ordinary or unusual fees, claims, or expenses, the Court being, of the opinion that such matters should be reserved pending disposition of the pending petition to remove the Administratrix, and pending disposition of the contest of the alleged will of the decedent, now pending in this Court. The Court takes the view that, under the restraining order aforesaid, the position of the Administratrix is substantially that of an Administratrix ad colligendum.”

It is this last mentioned order which petitioner seeks to have vacated.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
108 So. 2d 335, 268 Ala. 422, 1959 Ala. LEXIS 348, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ex-parte-lange-ala-1959.