In re Davison's Estate

• Decision Date: 17 March 1903
• Citation: 100 Mo. App. 263,73 S.W. 373
• Parties: In re DAVISON'S ESTATE. DAVISON v. DAVISON.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

73 S.W. 373

100 Mo. App. 263

In re DAVISON'S ESTATE DAVISON v. DAVISON.

Court of Appeals at St. Louis, Missouri.

March 17, 1903.

PROBATE COURTS—CONCLUSIVENESS OF JUDGMENT—COLLATERAL ATTACK—PRESUMPTION OF VALIDITY—GRANTS OF LETTERS.

1. Probate courts are courts of superior, though limited, jurisdiction, whose judgments are not subject to collateral attack, but are presumably valid, unless set aside in a direct proceeding.

2. Under Rev. St. 1899, § 4, providing that letters on the estate of a decedent shall be granted in the county in which he had a house or place of abode, where a testator died out of the state, leaving a place of abode in one county, letters testamentary granted by the probate court of another county cannot be disregarded by the probate court of the county in which deceased had his abode, and letters granted there.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Wm. Zachritz, Judge.

In the matter of the estate of Livingston E. Davison, deceased. On application for letters of administration de bonis non. Application refused, and applicant appeals. Affirmed.

Frank K. Ryan, for appellant. H. A. Hauessler and G. K. Ballengal, for respondent.

Statement of Facts and Opinion.

GOODE, J.

Livingston E. Davison died March 6, 1901, at El Paso, Tex., leaving a will dated February 13, 1901, in which he spoke of himself as of the county of Jackson, in the state of Missouri, bequeathed all his property to his children, Guy P. and Elise Davison, and appointed his brother executor. The will was admitted to probate in the probate court of Jackson county, Mo., March 26, 1901, and letters testamentary granted the executor. In May of the same year the probate court of the city of St. Louis granted letters of administration on the decedent's estate to the St. Louis Trust Company, but revoked those letters in September, 1901, as having been improvidently issued. On October 13, 1901, Lettillia T. Davison, the appellant, applied to the probate court of the city of St. Louis for letters of administration de bonis non, as the widow of the deceased, which application was refused on account of the previous grant of letters to the executor of the will in Jackson county. Appellant appealed from the order refusing her letters to the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, where the cause was tried anew, with the same result, and an appeal taken to this court.

The decedent formerly lived with his family in Jackson county, but was divorced from his wife in 1895. Prior to that event he met the appellant in New York in 1893, and they lived together, holding themselves out as man and wife, for some time after that date—until the death of Davison. For about five years appellant and Davison resided in St. Louis, boarding at different places, sometimes under the name of Lloyd, and sometimes under that of Davison.

The contention on this appeal is that the grant of letters testamentary by the probate court of Jackson county was a nullity and utterly void because Davison's home when he died was in St. Louis, and that therefore appellant, as his widow pursuant to a common-law marriage, is entitled to letters of administration in the city of St. Louis.

The statutes provide that administration shall be granted on the estate of a decedent in the county in which he had a mansion house or place of abode; or if he had no mansion house or place of abode when he died, but possessed lands, in the county in which the greater part of the lands lie; or if he had no mansion house, place of abode, or lands, in the county in which he died or where the greater part of his estate may be; or if he died out of the state, leaving no mansion house or place of abode or lands in this state,...