In Re Estate of Sheldon

189 S.W.2d 235, 354 Mo. 232, 1945 Mo. LEXIS 512
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJuly 2, 1945
DocketNo. 39460.
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 189 S.W.2d 235 (In Re Estate of Sheldon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Estate of Sheldon, 189 S.W.2d 235, 354 Mo. 232, 1945 Mo. LEXIS 512 (Mo. 1945).

Opinion

*236 TIPTON, J.

On November 6, 1944, appellant appeared specially in the probate court of Randolph County, Missouri, by written motion to challenge the jurisdiction of that court to administer the estate of Jennie Maude Sheldon, deceased, and requested that court to vacate all prior proceedings by the court in that estate for the reason that it was without jurisdiction to entertain administration upon her estate. Respondent filed a motion to strike appellant’s motion from the files. The probate court certified these motions to the circuit court of Randolph County for trial, and by agreement, Honorable Austin Walden, as the special judge, tried these motions and sustained respondent’s motion to strike. From that ruling, the appellant has duly appealed to this court.

On May 24, 1944, during the May Term of the probate court of Randolph County, that court held a hearing and made the following order of' record:

“Now on this day comes A. R. Hammett and Lawrence Holman and informs the court that Jennie M. Sheldon living at 411 S. Clark Street died May 21st, 1944, and asked the court to determine if she is a citizen of Randolph County.

“After hearing the evidence in the matter, the court finds that said Jennie M. Sheldon was a citizen of Randolph County at the time of her death, May 21, 1.944, and further finds that at the time of her death she maintained, owned and occupied a mansion house or place of abode in Randolph County, Missouri, and also owned and possessed other lands in said county, and maintained her permanent residence and was domiciled in the mansion house aforesaid, where she died on the date aforesaid. That in view of the facts aforesaid, the court declares that under the terms of Sections 4 and 531, Revised Statutes of Missouri 39, the jurisdiction for the administration of the estate of said Jennie Maude' Sheldon is in the Probate Court of Randolph County.”

On June 7, 1944, a will of the decedent was probated in that court and on the same day,’ May Hammons was appointed executrix of the estate and has entered upon the discharge of her duties. The May Term, 1944, of that court, at which the orders were made, adjourned just prior to the commencement of the next term, which commenced on the first Monday of September. The September Term adjourned just before the commencement of the November Term, which was on the first Monday in November, 1944.

During the November Term, the appellant filed a motion in that court to set aside all previous orders in the estate' on the ground *237 “that the court is without jurisdiction to administer upon the estate of Jennie Maude Sheldon or to appoint an executrix under the will of Jennie Maude Sheldon, deceased, to administer upon her estate for the reason that said decedent was, at the time of her death and for many years next prior thereto, a resident of, and had her domicile in the City of St. Louis.” The reasons assigned in this motion as to why the probate court of Randolph County did not have jurisdiction to probate this estate are: because on October 22, 1929, Jennie Maude Sheldon was a resident of and domiciled in the City of St. Louis, and on that date, adjudged by the probate court of the City of St. Louis to be a person of unsound mind and incapable of managing her affairs; that on that date, Auhrey R. Hammett was duly appointed by that court as guardian of her person and estate and continued as such until her death in the City of Moberly on May 21, 1944; and that by reason of that adjudication, she was incapable of changing her residence or domicile from the City of St. Louis to any other place in the State of Missouri, and, therefore, the jurisdiction of her person and estate was vested in the probate court of the City of St. Louis.

Respondent filed in the probate court of Randolph County a motion to strike appellant’s motion to revoke its orders heretofore described for the following reasons: first, because such a motion could only be filed during the May Term of that court; second, after a determination of the facts by that court as to its jurisdiction, the orders became final as against everyone, even nonresidents of the county, twenty days after the adjournment of the May Term, which was September 22, 1944; third, that the above orders became final upon adjournment of the May Term of court and became final judgments of a court of record and could not be set aside; fourth, the orders and judgments of that court were regular on their faces, and, as the appellant’s motion was filed after adjournment of May Term of court, it was a collateral attack upon these orders and judgments; and, fifth, that appellant’s motion was filed too late to have any efficacy; that the order determining the residence of decedent and the jurisdiction of the probate court became final and unassailable and that court had no discretion, but is absolutely without authority to grant the relief prayed for in appellant’s motion.

The appellant was not permitted to introduce evidence in support of his motion, but did make an offer of proof to sustain the motion. As previously stated, the circuit court, where these motions were certified and tried, sustained respondent’s motion to strike. It is evident that the trial court treated respondent’s motion to strike as a demurrer to appellant’s motion to vacate.

A motion to strike is the proper procedure when a pleading is filed out of time. Byers v. Jacobs, 164 Mo. 141, 64 S. W. 156; Hodges v. Brooks, Mo. App., 122 S. W. (2d) 383. Where a pleading *238 states no canse of action or defense, it is open to a motion to strike. It is “well established that a motion to strike out or to dismiss, which fills the office of a demurrer, must be judged by the rules pertaining to demurrers.” State ex rel. Southern National Bank of Kansas City v. Ellison et al., 266 Mo. 423, l. c. 430, 181 S. W. 998. Therefore, we will treat the facts stated in appellant’s motion as true.

, Appellant contends that his motion was filed in time because it is a motion in the nature of a writ of error coram nobis, and if this is true, then a motion can be filed at a term subsequent to the judgment term. 34 C. J. 398. Such a motion is in the nature of an independent and direct attack upon the judgment. State ex rel. Potter v. Riley, 219 Mo. 667, 118 S. W. 647.

“The probate court is a court of record, holding regular terms at stated periods, with general original jurisdiction in all matters pertaining to the administration of estates of deceased persons. Its judgments and orders in such matters are entitled to the same presumption of verity as is accorded to those of courts of general jurisdiction, proceeding according to the course of the common law . . . ” Rottman v. Schmucker, 94 Mo. 139, l. c. 143, 7 S. W. 117.

In the case at bar, the probate court followed Section 531, R. S. Mo. 1939, which is as follows:

“If the testator have a mansion house or known place of abode in any county, his will shall be there proved; if he have no place of residence, and lands be devised, it shall be proved in the county where any part of the lands lie; and if he have no place of residence, and there be no lands devised, the will shall be proved in the county in which the testator died, or, if he died out of the state, than in any county.”

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Bluebook (online)
189 S.W.2d 235, 354 Mo. 232, 1945 Mo. LEXIS 512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-estate-of-sheldon-mo-1945.