Hopper v. Nicholas

106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 292
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1922
DocketNo. 17323
StatusPublished

This text of 106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 292 (Hopper v. Nicholas) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hopper v. Nicholas, 106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 292 (Ohio 1922).

Opinion

Clark, J.

The essential question here to be determined is the foi’ce and effect of the proceedings in the surrogates court of the county and state of New York on March 9, 1898.

If such proceedings were in manner and form as provided by law, and the surrogates court acquired and had jurisdiction of the persons ‘having an interest in and the matters concerned with the will and estate of George H. Hopper, the controversy is concluded by the provisions of Section 1, Article IV of the Constitution of the United States, which requires that “Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state.”

It is, therefore, necessary to determine the jurisdiction of the surrogates court of New York. The surrogates courts were created by an act of the New York legislature passed March 16, 1778. The constitutions of New York have continued these courts, and Section 15, Article VI of the Constitution of [295]*295New York adopted in 1894, and since then in effect, reads, in part, as follows:

“The existing Surrogates’ Courts are continued, * # * Surrogates and Surrogates’ Courts shall have the jurisdiction and powers which the Surrogates and existing Surrogates ’ Courts now possess, until otherwise provided by the Legislature.”

At and prior to March 1, 1898, Section 2472, New York Code of Civil Procedure, provided as to the general jurisdiction of surrogates courts, in part, as follows: “Each surrogate must hold, * * # a court, which has * * * jurisdiction, as follows:

“1. To take the proof of wills; to admit wills to probate; to revoke the probate thereof,” etc.
“2. To grant and revoke letters testamentary and letters of administration,” etc.
“3. To direct and control the conduct, and settle the accounts, of executors, administrators, and testamentary trustees,” etc.
“4. To enforce the payment of debts and legacies; the distribution of estates of decedents,” etc.
“6. To administer justice, in all matters relating to the affairs of decedents,” etc.

Section 2473, New York Code of Civil Procedure, provided in part as follows:

“"Where the jurisdiction of a surrogate’s court to make * * * a decree or other determination, is drawn into question collaterally, and the necessary parties were duly cited or appeared, the jurisdiction is presumptively, and, in the absence of fraud or collusion, conclusively, established, by an allegation of the jurisdictional facts, contained in a written petition or answer, duly verified, used in the surrogates court,” etc.

[296]*296Section 2475, New York Code of Civil Procedure, provided in part as follows:

“Jurisdiction, once duly exercised over any matter, by a surrogate’s court, excludes the subsequent exercise of jurisdiction by another surrogate’s court over the same matter,” etc.

Section 2476, New York Code of Civil Procedure, provided in part as follows:

“The surrogate’s court of each county has jurisdiction, * * * to take the proof of a will, and to grant letters testamentary thereupon, or to grant letters of administration, * * *
“1. Where the decedent was, at the time of his death, a resident of that county, whether his death happened there or elsewhere.”

Section 2614, New York Code of Civil Procedure, provided in part:

“A person designated in a will as executor * * or any person interested in the estate * * * may present to the surrogate’s court having jurisdiction, a written petition, duly verified, describing the will, setting forth the facts, upon which the jurisdiction of the court to grant probate thereof depends,” etc.

Section 2615, New York Code of Civil Procedure, provided in part:

“The following persons must be cited upon a petition presented as prescribed in the last section: * * *
“3. If the will relates to both real and personal property the husband or wife, if any, and all the heirs, and all the next of kin of the testator.”

The record shows that the petition of Harriett A. Hopper, widow, and executrix named in the last will and testament of George H. Hopper, filed March 1, 1898, alleged in part that she was (a) “the executrix [297]*297named in the last will and testament of George H. Hopper, late of the county of New York, deceased,” (b) “that the deceased was, at the time of his death, a resident of the county of New York.”

The petition further alleged that the petitioner, Harriett A. Hopper, was the widow of George H. Hopper; that Charles H. Hopper, a son, Jennie M. Nicholas, a daughter, and Florence Lynneth Fitch, a daughter, were all of the heirs of George H. Hopper. The prayer was “that a citation issue to the above named persons to attend the probate thereof and that the said last will and testament may be proved as a will of real and personal property and that letters testamentary may be issued thereon to the executrix who may qualify thereunder.”

Thereafter waiver and entry of appearance was entered in that proceeding by all of the persons interested in the estate, as named in the petition therein, including the following, caption omitted:

“I, Charles H. Hopper, the undersigned,'an heir and next of kin of George H. Hopper, deceased, do hereby appear in person and waive the issue and service of a citation in the above entitled matter, and consent that said instrument, bearing date 29th day of December, 1896, be forthwith admitted to probate.
“(Signed) Chas. H. Hopper.”

This appearance, waiver and consent was witnessed and acknowledged in manner and form provided by law.

[298]*298All parties interested in the estate filed appearance, waiver and consent identical in substance and form.

Thereafter on the 9th day of March, 1898, the following order was entered, caption omitted:

“The citation herein having been duly issued and returned, the allegations of the parties appearing having been heard, and the proofs having been duly taken by the Surrogate, among other things as to the execution of said instrument bearing date December 29,1896, and the probate of the said will not having been contested, and it appearing to the Surrogate that the will was duly executed and that the testator at the time of executing it was in all respects competent to make a will, and not under restraint;
“It is ordered, adjudged and decreed that the instrument offered for probate herein be and the same hereby is admitted to probate as the last will and testament of the said deceased, valid to pass real'and personal property, and that Letters Testamentary be issued thereon to the executrix who may qualify thereunder.
‘ ‘ Frank T. Fitzgeralb,
“Surrogate.”

On the same date letters testamentary were issued by the surrogates court to Harriett A. Hopper, as executrix of the will, and thereupon Mrs. Hopper entered into discharge of her duties as such executrix.

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Bluebook (online)
106 Ohio St. (N.S.) 292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hopper-v-nicholas-ohio-1922.