Strickland v. Peters, 9713.

• Citation: 120 F.2d 53
• Decision Date: 12 June 1941
• Docket Number: No. 9713.,9713.
• Parties: STRICKLAND et al. v. PETERS et al. PETERS et al. v. STRICKLAND et al.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (5th Circuit)

120 F.2d 53 (1941)

STRICKLAND et al. v. PETERS et al. PETERS et al. v. STRICKLAND et al.

No. 9713.

Circuit Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.

May 15, 1941.

Rehearing Denied June 12, 1941.

Cecil C. Bailey, Wm. H. Rogers, and Robert R. Milam, all of Jacksonville, Fla., for appellants Strickland et al.

Wm. H. Jackson, of Tampa, Fla., and M. L. Donovan, of Omaha, Neb., for appellants Peters et al.

Before FOSTER, SIBLEY, and HOLMES, Circuit Judges.

SIBLEY, Circuit Judge.

The questions we shall decide mainly relate to the equitable jurisdiction of the district court, and the case will be stated with special reference to them.

C. F. Peters and his wife Blanche N. Peters, seventy-nine and seventy-five years of age in 1937, and citizens of Florida, owned land there as tenants by the entireties and personal property of the aggregate value of about $50,000. Because of mental failure Mr. Peters was confined in a sanitarium, J. A. Strickland being his physician. On November 18, 1937, by court proceedings, Dr. Strickland was appointed guardian of his person, and Dr. Strickland and Florida National Bank of Jacksonville were appointed joint curators of his estate. On the same day Mrs. Peters gave Dr. Strickland and the Bank a general power of attorney to manage her property and affairs. She also gave written directions to a lawyer connected with the Bank to prepare for her a will, by which she gave five special bequests, and the remainder of her estate to Dr. Strickland. The Bank was named executor. This will was executed the next day. On April 27, 1939, Mr. Peters died, and the property all went to Mrs. Peters. The curators made their accounts to the court and were discharged on May 10, 1939. On May 18, 1939, Mrs. Peters made a deed to the Bank as trustee of described real and personal property (being all she owned) in trust, to raise an income for her during her life and after her death for the benefit of the wife of Dr. Strickland, or in case of her death, for the benefit of Dr. Strickland's daughter. On the same day she made another will revoking the former one and giving all the property she might die possessed of to Dr. Strickland, and named him executor. Mrs. Peters died June 7, 1939. The last will was filed in the probate court, but with a petition which stated that Mrs. Peters left no debts and had by the trust deed to the Bank disposed of all her property, and prayed for a decree that no probate or administration was necessary.

Otto M. Peters and others are collateral relatives of Mr. Peters who, since Mrs. Peters left no kinsfolk, are entitled to inherit from her under Compiled General Laws Supp., § 5480(1) (7). They reside in and are citizens of other States than Florida. Instead of calling for probate of the wills in the probate court, or asking for administration, they on October 9, 1939, filed a petition in the District Court of the United States against Dr. Strickland, his wife and daughter, and the Bank, attacking both wills and deed as void for want of capacity in Mrs. Peters, and for fraud and undue influence on the part of Dr. Strickland and the Bank. It was prayed that Dr. Strickland be enjoined from probating the wills, that the Bank be enjoined from disposing of any of the property which had come into its possession; that a receiver be appointed to take charge of it; that the wills and deed and power of attorney be all adjudged void; that Dr. Strickland and the Bank make an account of money and property they had handled for Mr. and Mrs. Peters; that it be adjudged that Mrs. Peters died intestate; and that petitioners are her heirs and entitled to all her estate. The bill was later amended to attack the decree appointing Dr. Strickland and the Bank as curators, and to annul another deed to the Bank, and the prayers were amended to cover those matters, and to ask the court to appoint an "administrator ad litem" for the use and benefit of the estate of Mrs. Peters, to receive the property and recover the money due her.

The answer, besides denials and explanations, contained a motion to dismiss for want of jurisdiction over the subject matter, it being within the exclusive jurisdiction of the Florida probate court; and because the action if maintainable at all should be brought by the personal representative, and states no claim upon which relief can be granted.

The judge made findings of fact, held that though there was no jurisdiction to administer the estate of Mrs. Peters, there was jurisdiction to determine the validity of the deeds and by consequence the validity of the wills. He overruled the motion to dismiss; adjudged void both the wills, and the deeds and other attacked instruments, appointed another bank as receiver, and ordered the defendants to turn over to it all property of Mrs. Peters in their custody. An accounting with the curators was denied. The plaintiffs appeal from this last part of the decree. The defendants appeal from all else.

The court is without jurisdiction to try the validity of the wills. Originally a will devising land was only a muniment of title, like a deed, whose execution had to be proved, and could be tried before any court capable of trying land titles. Now in almost all the States the validity of a will as such is tried exclusively in a court of probate, whose judgment thereon is in rem, binding the world. Such is the case in Florida. The admission or rejection of a will to probate is in rem, establishing status, and conclusive on the world. Barry v. Walker, 103 Fla. 533, 137 So. 711; Gardiner v. Goertner, 110 Fla. 377, 149 So. 186, 187, 195; Thompson v. Freeman, 111 Fla. 433, 149 So. 740. The Constitution of Florida, Art. 5, Sec. 17, vests in the county...