Ellis v. Rhone
| Decision Date | 01 January 1856 |
| Citation | 17 Tex. 131 |
| Parties | BENJAMIN T. ELLIS AND OTHERS v. MOBLEY RHONE, ADM'R. |
| Court | Texas Supreme Court |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Persons having a joint interest with the estate of a deceased person, in any property, real or personal, may make application to the county court from which letters testamentary or of administration have been granted on said estate, to have partition thereof under the statute; or they may sue in the district court under the general jurisdiction of that court.
Whether, where the right of the alleged joint owner is contested, the district court has not exclusive jurisdiction over such subject matter, quære.
Appeal from Houston. Tried below before the Hon. John H. Reagan.
G. F. Moore, for appellants.
S. A. Miller and Yoakum & Taylor, for appellee.
This suit is by the heirs of Nathaniel Shirley, deceased, who represent that he died in 1849, possessed of certain property, owned in common with his wife, Sarah P., which property, with increase and changes, was shown by an exhibit made a part of the petition. They represent that there has been no administration of the said Nathaniel, nor any division made of the community property between his heirs and his said widow; that the property continued in the possession of the said Sarah P. until 1850, when she intermarried with one Mobley Rhone; and that it afterwards continued in their possession until October, 1855, when the said Sarah P. departed this life; that administration upon the estate of the said Sarah was granted to the said Mobley Rhone, who claimed and now held the said property as the separate and common property of himself and the said Sarah P., deceased. The petitioners prayed that the said property might be equally partitioned between them and the estate of the said Sarah P., and that each of their shares might be allotted to them in severalty. The exhibit set forth some lands and a most minute specification of articles of personal property. The only defensive pleading requiring notice is the one denying the jurisdiction of the district court, and averring that the subject matter was within the exclusive cognizance of the county court.
This plea was sustained and the petition dismissed.
The provision on which exclusive jurisdiction is claimed for the county court is in art. 1215, which declares that any person having a joint interest with the estate of the decedent in any property, real or personal, may make application to the county court, from which letters testamentary or of administration have been granted on said estate, to have partition thereof, whereupon the court shall proceed to make a partition of said property between the applicant or applicants and the estate of the deceased. Admitting that the proceeding under this article pertains to the estate of a deceased person, and is within the object of the act as expressed in the title, yet no inference can be drawn from its terms, or the nature of the jurisdiction, that the legislature intended to vest exclusive authority in the county court. The statute is not peremptory. Persons may apply to the county court, and not that they shall apply. So, under art. 1162, a purchaser may have a decree from the county court against an...
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S.C. v. M.B.
...tenancy, however, are distinct types of ownership. Id. at 128–29.9 See, e.g., Wright v. Wright , 7 Tex. 526 (1852) ; Ellis v. Rhone , 17 Tex. 131 (1856) ; Hardin v. Hardin , 38 Tex. 616 (1873) ; Whetstone v. Coffey , 48 Tex. 269 (1877).10 Fraud is intrinsic when it involves merits issues th......
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Huppman v. Schmidt
... ... art. 5, sec. 8; R. S., arts. 2172, 3466; Francis v. Northcote, 6 Tex. 185. Ellis v. Rhone, 17 Tex. 131;Crain v. Crain, 17 Tex. 82;Smith v. Smith, 11 Tex. 105;Ponton v. Bellows. 22 Tex. 681;Young v. Gray, 60 Tex. 541;Jerrard v ... ...
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Gutheridge v. Gutheridge
... ... Grassmeyer v. Beeson, 18 Tex. 753, 70 Am. Dec. 309; Ellis v. Rhone, 17 Tex. 131; Ross v. Armstrong, 25 Tex. Supp. 355, 78 Am. Dec. 574; Payne v. Benham, 16 Tex. 364. We have investigated the question as ... ...
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Luke v. Ormond
...of the co-tenants is an estate under administration. It was early held that the district court has jurisdiction of such a suit. Ellis v. Rhone, 17 Tex. 131 (1856). The court, in construing a predecessor to the present Vernon's Tex.Prob.Code Ann. sec. 386 (1956) held that provision, 'that an......