In re James' Estate
| Decision Date | 12 February 1940 |
| Docket Number | No. 8178.,8178. |
| Citation | 11 A.2d 295 |
| Parties | In re JAMES' ESTATE. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
Appeal from Superior Court, Newport County.
Proceeding in the matter of the estate of Lucy Wortham James. Heard on the question of the truth of the appellees' exceptions and transcript and motion of appellants to dismiss.
Appellants' motion to dismiss appellees' bill of exceptions granted, and appellees' bill of exceptions dismissed without prejudice.
Cornelius C.Moore and Charles H. Drummey, both of Newport, for appellants.
Sheffield & Harvey and J. Russell Haire, all of Newport, and Tillinghast, Collins & Tanner, and. Harold E. Staples, all of Providence, for appellees.
This ease is a probate appeal to the superior court for the county of Newport from a decree of the probate court of the city of Newport denying a petition by William Alfred Bowles that an administrator of the estate of Lucy Wortham James be appointed.
The case was partially heard before a justice of the superior court, sitting without a jury, and he then entered a decision comprising certain findings and also entered a decree and continued the case for further hearing later on. The appellees at once took certain exceptions; and within ten days thereafter, and before any further proceedings had been taken, they filed a bill of exceptions, setting forth a number of exceptions as having been taken by them at the hearing.
On presentation to the trial justice of this bill of exceptions and a transcript of the proceedings at the hearing, he disallowed the bill as being premature and declined to allow the transcript. Thereupon the case and the papers therein were certified to this court by the clerk of the superior court, in accordance with General Laws 1938, chapter 542, § 9; and the case is now before us on the question of the truth of the exceptions and transcript filed by the appellees. It is also before us on the oral motion of the appellants to dismiss the bill of exceptions on the ground that it had been filed prematurely.
Our opinion which was written by Mr. Justice Condon in the certiorari proceeding entitled in the Matter of Estate of Lucy Wortham James, R.I., 11 A.2d 289, and which is filed with this opinion, sets forth fully the nature of this case and the proceedings in it in the superior court previous to the filing of the bill of exceptions now before us. That opinion also sets forth the findings and orders which were made in this case by the trial justice in his written decision and incorporated in a decree entered by him on July 5, 1939, and which include the findings and orders that are relied upon as final by the appellees in this matter now before us.
The first of these findings and orders that are thus relied on by the appellees as final are the finding and order by which the trial justice adjudged that the appellees were guilty of contempt of court in failing to produce the original will of Lucy Wortham James. The only others of these findings and orders that are thus relied on by the appellees as final are the finding and order by which they were enjoined from transferring, exchanging, selling, pledging, or delivering any part of the estate to any person until further order of the court and from attempting to convey, exchange, sell, or deliver any real estate or personal property, tangible or intangible, which is a part of the estate, whether within or without the borders of this state.
In the opinion above mentioned we held that the finding and order first-above described were not final,...
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In re James' Estate, 738.
...of New York, it was incorporated in a formal decree. Those appellees also filed a petition for certiorari, in the Matter of Estate of Lucy Wortham James, R.I., 11 A.2d 289, which we considered and disposed of in an opinion filed herewith this day. For a fuller statement of the facts out of ......