O'Connor v. Stanley

54 F.2d 20, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3841
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedNovember 18, 1931
DocketNo. 9074
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 54 F.2d 20 (O'Connor v. Stanley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Connor v. Stanley, 54 F.2d 20, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3841 (8th Cir. 1931).

Opinion

GARDNER, Circuit Judge.

In this ease, appellants, who were plaintiffs below, are seeking to establish their claim to the estate of John O’Connor, deceased. The appellee is the administrator de bonis non of that estate, having been appointed as such and substituted as a party defendant in this suit as successor to John Slaker, now deceased. We shall refer to the parties as they appear in the lower court.

The bill of complaint contains three counts. The first count alleges that John O’Connor departed this life at Hastings, Neb., August 17, 1913, leaving a last will and testament, by which he devised his property, consisting of both real and personal property of a value exceeding $125,09Ü, to the plaintiffs as his sole legatees and devisees. The second count is bottomed on a claim of heirship, and in the third count plaintiffs ^eek to quiet title to the property as against the defendant administrator. Originally the state of Nebraska was named as a party defendant, but on a prior appeal this court held that the suit could not be maintained as against the state. That appeal was from an order and judgment of the lower court dismissing the action, entered upon motion of the defendants. This court held that the alleged cause of action set out in the first count was not within the jurisdiction of the federal court, because it in effect sought to probate a will, but that the second and third counts of the bill of complaint stated causes of action that were cognizable by the federal court. O’Connor v. Slaker (C. C. A.) 22 F.(2d) 147.

After the cause was remanded to the lower court, the defendant filed answer to the second and third counts. The alleged heir-ship of the plaintiffs was denied, and defend[21]*21ant pleaded res judicata and consequent estoppel; it being alleged that all matters claimed and relied upon by plaintiffs had been finally adjudicated in the state courts of Nebraska, and also that the said John O’Con-nor died on August 17, 1913, in Adams county, Neb., then a resident thereof, leaving him surviving no widow and no kindred, heirs, or next of kin, and that upon his death all his property became, by escheat, the property of the state of Nebraska, and that it had been so adjudicated by the state courts of Nebraska. Plaintiffs, by reply, denied the allegations of res judicata, and alleged that they had dismissed the proceedings previously instituted by them in the county court of Adams county, Neb., in the matter of the . administration of the estate of said deceased, and therefore were not bound by the adjudication 'set out in the answer. Certain other parties, also claiming to be the sole surviving heirs of John 0'’Connor, deceased, were permitted to intervene, and on the trial the issues framed- by the foregoing pleadings, as well as those involving the claims of the interveners, were determined in favor of the defendant and against the plaintiffs. Prom the judgment entered the plaintiffs alone, as distinguished from the interveners, have appealed.

The lower court made no findings, but from the opinion filed it appears that the court considered the claims of heirship asserted by the plaintiffs, as well as the claims of heirship asserted by the interveners, on their merits, and expressed the opinion that these claims of heirship were not supported by the evidence. We have carefully examined the testimony, and are of the opinion that the court was correct in so holding. In view of the conclusion we have reached on other issues presented, however, no good purpose would be served by reviewing the testimony in this opinion, further than to state that we are of the view that it abundantly sustains the lower court. The history of the various phases of this protracted litigation will be found reflected in the following decisions of the state and federal courts: In re O’Con-nor’s Estate, 101 Neb. 617, 164 N. W. 570; In re O’Connor’s Estate, 105 Neb. 88, 179 N. W. 401, 12 A. L. R. 199; O’Connor v. State, 110 Neb. 822, 195 N. W. 126; In re O’Connor’s Estate, 114 Neb. 266, 207 N. W. 31; In re O’Connor’s Estate, 117 Neb. 636, 222 N. W. 57; O’Connor v. Slaker (C. C. A.) 22 P. (2d) 147; Slaker v. O’Connor, 278 ü. S. 188, 49 S. Ct. 158, 73 L. Ed. 258.

In support of their claim of heirship, plaintiffs offered in evidence an instrument purporting to be a will executed and published by the deceased at St. Joseph, Mo., on the 10th day of October, 1908. This will, however, had been finally adjudicated to be a forgery (In re O’Connor’s Estate, 105 Neb. 88,179 N. W. 401,12 A. L. R. 199), and this court on the prior appeal held that plaintiffs, in the absence of a probate of the will, could not recover thereunder. It is claimed that, while the will is rendered inefficacious for some purposes, it is still evidence that decedent had a brother named Charles, who probably had children. While this instrument had been finally adjudicated to be a forgery, that issue was apparently retried by the lower court, and on the testimony the lower court again held the instrument spurious. The will, it should be observed, was denied probate by the county court of Nebraska having jurisdiction of the probate of the estate, not because of any irregularity in the matter of its execution, but because it was a forgery. It was therefore void for all purposes, and the adjudication of the county court of Adams county, which was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Nebraska, was binding and conclusive in all other courts. It would be a remarkable doctrine that an instrument adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be a forgery might, nevertheless, in a subsequent action between the same parties, be considered as proof of any recital contained therein. But not only did the county court of Adams county, Neb., adjudicate this will to be a forgery, but it also adjudicated that the plaintiffs were not heirs of John O’Connor, deceased, and the defendant insists that the plaintiffs are bound by that adjudication, and are therefore precluded from asserting heirship in this case.

The following statutory and constitutional provisions are pertinent as defining the jurisdiction of the county courts of Nebraska, and giving the conditions under which the estate of a decedent resident of Nebraska shall escheat to the estate.

Section 30-102,1929 Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, provides: “When any person leaving no husband or wife surviving shall die, seized of any real estate, or any right thereto, or entitled to any interest therein in fee simple, or for the life of another, not having lawfully devised the same, it shall descend subject to his debts, in the manner following: * * * Seventh. If the deceased shall leave no kindred nor husband nor wife, the estate shall escheat to the State of Nebraska.”

Section 30-103, 1929 Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, provides: “The residue, if any, [22]*22of the personal estate shall he distributed in the same proportions to the same persons as prescribed for the descent óf real estate.”

Section 76-501,1929 Compiled Statutes of Nebraska, provides: “Upon the failure of heirs the title shall vest at once in the state, without an inquest or other proceedings in the nature of office found.”

Section 16, article 6, Constitution of Nebraska, prior to amendment in 1920, provided : “County courts shall be courts of record, and shall have original jurisdiction in all matters of probate, settlement of estates of deceased persons, appointments of guardians, and settlement of their accounts,” etc.

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Bluebook (online)
54 F.2d 20, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 3841, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oconnor-v-stanley-ca8-1931.