§ 32-5-110 — Foreign unprobated wills

(a) Where a foreign will has not been probated in another jurisdiction, any person interested may apply for its probate before the probate court of the county in this state in which the real estate or any part of the real estate is located. (b) To that end the interested person shall present a petition to the probate court, setting forth the death of the foreign testator, the decedent's ownership of lands in the county, and the fact of the decedent's testacy, whereupon the court shall authorize the taking of such proof as may be necessary to prove the will in accordance with the laws of this state. (c) (1) Depositions may be taken either upon interrogatories filed in the court for ten (10) days, or by oral examination at a time and place designated by the court. (2) No notice shall be required of the taking of the depositions, save any resulting from the making of the order for the depositions by the court. (3) When the depositions are taken by oral examination, the time that elapses between the making of the order for the depositions and the taking of the depositions shall not be less than the time prescribed for notice for taking depositions under the general laws. (d) Should it not be possible to exhibit to the depositions and produce before the probate court the original will, a copy of the will may be so used, the necessary witnesses proving that it is a true copy of the original. (e) On being admitted to probate, the probate shall have the same force and effect as to real estate as the probate in this state of wills of residents of this state have as to lands devised by them, but nothing in this section is to prevent the proving of foreign wills as at common law and without probate. (f) The will shall, as to real estate, be to the same extent and in the same manner as domestic wills subject to contest in the state, and certified copies of the record in the probate court shall be available as evidence as are copies of domestic wills and probate of domestic wills; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall apply to wills dated more than fifty-five (55) years prior to the enactment of this Code.

Legislative History

Acts 1909, ch. 87, §§ 3, 4; Shan., §§3924a5-3924a10; mod. Code 1932, §§ 8123 -- 8128; T.C.A. (orig. ed.), §§ 32-511 -- 32-516.