Branch v. Branch

• Decision Date: 20 August 2021
• Docket Number: 1200007
• Parties: Theodore BRANCH, Jr., Denise Whisenhunt, Wanda Standfield, Yulonda Branch, Monique Branch, and Darin Branch v. Angela BRANCH
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

347 So.3d 239

Theodore BRANCH, Jr., Denise Whisenhunt, Wanda Standfield, Yulonda Branch, Monique Branch, and Darin Branch

v.Angela BRANCH

1200007

Supreme Court of Alabama.

August 20, 2021

Byron G. McMath of McMath Law Firm, Jasper, for appellants.

Russell B. Robertson of Laird, Robertson & Allen, P.C., Jasper, for appellee.

STEWART, Justice.

Theodore Branch, Jr., Denise Whisenhunt, Wanda Standfield, Yulonda Branch, Monique Branch, and Darin Branch appeal from an order of the Walker Circuit Court ("the circuit court") dismissing their action challenging their father's will based on a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction. For the reasons discussed herein, we affirm the order of dismissal.

Facts and Procedural History

Theodore W. Branch, Sr. ("the father"), died testate December 3, 2019, survived by his seven children: Angela Branch, Theodore Branch, Jr., Denise Whisenhunt, Wanda Standfield, Yulonda Branch, Monique Branch, and Darin Branch. On January 16, 2020, Angela petitioned the Walker Probate Court ("the probate court") to probate a will that the father had executed on October 31, 2018 ("the will"). The will devised all of the father's property to Angela and omitted any reference to the father's other six children (hereinafter referred to collectively as "the omitted children"). On March 6, 2020, the omitted children filed a response to Angela's petition to probate the will in which they contested the validity of the will, asserting that the father had not been competent to execute the will and that Angela had exerted undue influence to procure the father's execution of the will and to obtain from the father the transfer of certain real and personal property. The omitted children also asserted that a previous will executed by the father in 2017 better reflected his final wishes. On March 10, 2020, the omitted children filed a petition in the probate court, requesting the removal of the administration of the father's estate to the circuit court; the probate court never acted on that petition.

On April 24, 2020, the omitted children filed in the circuit court what they styled as a "Petition to Contest Purported Will." In that petition, the omitted children raised the same allegations and arguments that they had raised in their will contest filed in the probate court, including seeking the cancellation of certain conveyances of the father's real and personal property. The omitted children also later filed in the circuit court a motion for a temporary restraining order in which they asked the circuit court to restrain all parties from damaging, depreciating, or using estate assets until the circuit court entered a final judgment in the circuit-court action.¹ Angela filed a motion to dismiss the circuit-court action on several grounds, including the circuit court's lack of subject-matter jurisdiction.

The probate court entered an order on June 17, 2020, finding that the omitted children had not proven that the father had lacked competency at the time of the execution of the will or that the will had been procured by undue influence. On the same day, the probate court entered an order admitting the will to probate and an order granting letters testamentary to Angela. On August 3, 2020, Angela filed in the circuit court a brief in support of her motion to dismiss in which she argued that the circuit court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over the circuit-court action because the omitted children had filed their petition to contest the will in the circuit court before the will had been admitted to probate, because the omitted children had already filed a will contest in the probate court, and because the probate court had not transferred the administration of the estate to the circuit court. Angela attached to her brief the probate court's June 17, 2020, order admitting the will to probate. In response, the omitted children asserted that the circuit-court action involved a request to cancel certain conveyances of the father's real and personal property and a request for a temporary restraining order, that those requests sought equitable relief, and that, therefore, only the circuit court had jurisdiction to consider those requests. The omitted children also stated that they were not seeking to appeal the probate court's decision on the will contest or to remove the proceedings in the probate court.

On August 12, 2020, the circuit court entered an order purporting to transfer the administration of the father's estate, including the omitted children's will contest, from the probate court to the circuit court. The circuit court also entered an order denying Angela's motion to dismiss and an order granting the omitted children's motion for a temporary restraining order. On Angela's motion to reconsider, however, the circuit court reversed course and entered an order concluding that it did not have subject-matter jurisdiction. The circuit court, therefore, dismissed the omitted children's action. The omitted children appealed.

Discussion

This Court reviews a ruling on a motion to dismiss based on a lack of subject-matter jurisdiction without a presumption of correctness. Newman v. Savas, 878 So. 2d 1147, 1148 (Ala. 2003). The circuit-court action was commenced when the omitted children filed a petition to contest the will. In Jones v. Brewster, 282 So. 3d 854 (Ala. 2019), this Court discussed how probate courts and circuit courts may acquire jurisdiction over will contests and the administration of estates:

" ‘ " ‘In Alabama, a will may be contested in two ways: (1) under § 43-8-190, Ala. Code 1975, before probate, the contest may be instituted in the probate court or (2) under § 43-8-199, Ala. Code 1975, after probate and within six months thereof, a contest may be instituted by filing a complaint in the circuit court of the county in which the will was probated.’

" ‘ " Stevens v. Gary, 565 So. 2d 73, 74 (Ala. 1990)."

" ‘ Bond v. Pylant, 3 So. 3d 852, 854 (Ala. 2008).’

" Burns v. Ashley, 274 So. 3d 970, 973 (Ala. 2018).’

"Under Alabama law, a circuit court, under specified conditions delineated in the pertinent statute, can obtain subject-matter jurisdiction over a will contest or the administration of an estate. The probate court has general and original jurisdiction over matters involving the administration of estates and the probating of wills. See Ala. Const. 1901, § 144 ; and § 12-13-1, Ala. Code 1975. Pursuant to § 43-8-190, Ala. Code 1975, the probate court has jurisdiction over will contests where a will has not been admitted to probate. Section 43-8-190, Ala. Code 1975, states, in pertinent part:

" ‘A will, before the probate thereof, may be contested by any person interested therein, or by any person, who, if the testator had died intestate, would have been an heir or distributee of his estate, by filing in the court where it is offered for probate allegations in writing that the will was not duly executed, or of the unsoundness of mind of the testator, or of any other valid objections thereto ....’

"A party, however, has the statutory right to seek a transfer of a will contest from the probate court to the circuit court pursuant to § 43-8-198, Ala. Code 1975, which reads:

" ‘Upon the demand of any party to the contest, made in writing at the time of filing the initial pleading, the probate court, or the judge thereof, must enter an order transferring the contest to the circuit court of the county in which the contest is made, and must certify all papers and documents pertaining to the contest to the clerk of the circuit court, and the case shall be docketed by the clerk of the circuit court and a special session of said court may be called for the trial of said contest or, said contest may be tried by said circuit court at any special or regular session of said court. The issues must be made up in the circuit court as if the trial were to be had in the probate court, and the trial had in all other respects as trials in other civil cases in the circuit court ....’

"To comply with [ § 43-8-198 ], the following prerequisites must be met: (1) the will must not be admitted to probate, although it must be offered for probate before it can be contested, see Hooper v. Huey, 293 Ala. 63, 67, 300 So. 2d 100, 104 (1974), disapproved of on other grounds, Bardin v. Jones, 371 So. 2d 23 (Ala. 1979) ; (2) the party seeking the transfer must file a written demand for the transfer in the probate court; (3) the transfer demand must be filed at the time of the filing of the will-contest complaint or other initial pleading; (4) the probate court must enter a written order transferring the will contest to the circuit court; (5) the probate court must certify the probate-court record pertaining to the will contest to the circuit-court clerk; (6) the circuit-court clerk shall docket the case in the circuit court; and (7) the circuit court must set the will contest for a trial at a regular or a special session of court.

"After a will has been admitted to probate in the probate court, jurisdiction in the circuit court cannot be invoked pursuant to a transfer under § 43-8-198. Within six months following the admission of the will to probate, however, a person with an interest in the will may file a will contest directly in the circuit court pursuant to § 43-8-199, Ala. Code 1975, which provides:

" ‘Any person interested in any will who has not contested the same under the provisions of this article, may, at any time within the six months after the admission of such will to probate in this state, contest the validity of the same by filing a complaint in the circuit court in the county in which such will was probated.’ "

282 So. 3d at 857-58.

The omitted children contend that the circuit court had jurisdiction over their action pursuant to § 43-8-199, Ala. Code 1975. Citing Noe v. Noe, 679 So. 2d 1057 (Ala. Civ. App. 1995), the omitted children appear to contend that a will contest may properly be "moved" from a probate court to a circuit court, and...