In re Arnold's Estate

• Decision Date: 07 June 1943
• Docket Number: No. 38317.,38317.
• Citation: 174 S.W.2d 377
• Parties: In re ARNOLD'S ESTATE. McKAY v. SNIDER.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

174 S.W.2d 377

In re ARNOLD'S ESTATE McKAY v. SNIDER.

No. 38317.

Supreme Court of Missouri, Division No. 2.

June 7, 1943.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Dunklin County; James V. Billings, Judge.

In the matter of the estate of John T. Arnold, a person of unsound mind. From an order sustaining a motion by D. A. Snider to dismiss an appeal to the circuit court by Henry A. McKay, guardian and curator of the incompetent, from a probate court order overruling appellant's exceptions to respondent Snider's final and annual settlements as appellant's predecessor guardian and curator, McKay appeals.

Cause transferred to the Springfield Court of Appeals.

McKay & McKay of Kennett, for appellant.

John W. Noble, Elbert L. Ford, and Arthur U. Goodman, Jr., all of Kennett, for respondent.

BARRETT, Commissioner.

In the Probate Court of Dunklin County Henry A. McKay, guardian and curator of John T. Arnold (a person of unsound mind), filed exceptions to the final and annual settlements of D. A. Snider, his predecessor guardian and curator. The Probate Court overruled his exceptions and McKay filed an affidavit for an appeal, which the court granted to the Circuit Court of Dunklin County. On May 4, 1942, Snider filed a motion, in the circuit court, to dismiss the appeal, assigning as reasons that the circuit court did not have jurisdiction of the appeal; that a proper affidavit for an appeal had not been filed and that the exceptions involved only one party when they should have included another before an appeal could be taken. Subsequently the circuit court sustained the motion and entered this order: "Motion sustained. Cause dismissed because appeal was taken and perfected in the name of John T. Arnold." McKay, as guardian and curator, then filed a motion for a new trial. When the motion for a new trial was overruled, McKay filed an affidavit for an appeal and his abstract of the record recites that "the court sustained the affidavit for appeal and granted the appeal to the Supreme Court of Missouri, the amount involved being greater than the jurisdiction of the court of appeals."

The record before us, the abstract filed by the appellant and the transcript of the judgment and order granting the appeal certified by the Clerk of the Circuit Court of Dunklin County, does not show that the cause, in any manner, involves an amount in excess of the jurisdiction of the Springfield Court of Appeals. Const.Mo., Art. 6, Sec. 12; Art. 6, Amend.1884, Sec. 6, Mo.R.S.A.; Mo.R.S.A. § 2078. Not one specific sum is mentioned in the record, statement, brief or argument and the appellant's mere recital, in his abstract or elsewhere, that a sum in excess of the courts of appeals' jurisdiction is involved does not give this court jurisdiction of the appeal. It must affirmatively appear "from the record in the cause" that the case does, in fact, involve an amount in excess of $7,500. Jurisdiction in this court for that reason...