"In the above styled and numbered cause, now pending before us on appeal from the district court of Cooke county, the appellants filed in that court their petition for a writ of certiorari to the county court, and upon which the writ was granted, as follows:
"`O. C. Williams et al v. John S. Steele et al. In the District Court of said County, October Term, 1906. To the Honorable D. E. Barrett, Judge of Said Court: The plaintiffs and applicants, O. C. Williams, Maggie Ford, joined by her husband, A. C. Ford, and Oscar Williams, a minor, by D. F. Ford, his next friend, complaining of John S. Steele and his wife, Mrs. Adaline Steele, defendants, respectfully represent: That plaintiffs and applicants are all residents of the Indian Territory, now know as Oklahoma, and the said Oscar Williams is a minor, represented by his next friend, D. F. Ford, and that defendants are all residents of Cooke county, Tex. That plaintiffs and applicants, except A. C. Ford and D. F. Ford, are all the children and heirs of Lenora Williams, deceased, who was the first wife of A. W. Williams, who is the father of said applicants. That the said Mrs. Lenora Williams died in Cooke county, Tex., on or about the 11th day of September, 1891, intestate. That at the time of her death the said Mrs. Lenora Williams, with her husband, A. W. Williams, who survived her, occupied as their homestead, which was the community property of the said Mrs. Lenora Williams and A. W. Williams, 80 acres of land out of the James O. Logsdon survey of 320 acres, abstract No. 593, situated in Cooke county, Tex., about 12 miles southeast from Gainesville, being the same 80 acres of land sold to A. W. Williams by J. L. Bray and wife on September 25, 1885, by deed recorded in volume 37, page 176, Deed Records of Cooke County, Tex., to which reference is hereby expressly made. That on the 2d day of April, 1902, nearly 11 years after the death of the said Mrs. Lenora Williams, the said A. W. Williams applied to the county court of Cooke county, Tex., for an appointment of three appraisers to appraise the
community estate of the said A. W. and Lenora Williams. That when the said A. W. Williams made application more than four years had elapsed since the death of the said Mrs. Lenora Williams, and there were no debts of any kind owing by the community estate of the said A. W. and Lenora Williams, and therefore the county court of Cooke county, Tex., had no jurisdiction to grant, and should not have granted, said application. That nevertheless B. F. Mitchell, the county judge of Cooke county, Tex., granted said application on April 2, 1902, and appointed three appraisers; the order appointing said appraisers being recorded in Volume No. 7, page No. 593, of the Probate Minutes of the County Court of Cooke County, Tex., to which reference is hereby expressly made. That the inventory and appraisement of said estate, showing said land to belong to the said community estate, was prepared by the said A. W. Williams and Joe Dillon and L. E. Steele, two of the appraisers appointed. That said inventory and appraisement was approved by B. F. Mitchell, county judge of Cooke county, Tex., on April 2, 1902, and on said April 2, 1902, the said A. W. Williams filed in said cause his bond as community administrator of said community estate, which said bond was approved by said Mitchell, county judge, on said April 2, 1902, and an order entered authorizing the said A. W. Williams to take charge of, control, manage, and dispose of the community property owned by him and the said Mrs. Lenora Williams; said order being entered in Volume No. 7, page No. 593, of the Probate Minutes of the County Court of Cooke County, Tex. That above said orders of said judge appointing said appraisers and approving said inventory and appraisement and authorizing the said A. W. Williams to manage, control, and dispose of said community estate were all made on April 2, 1902, and were all null and void, and should not have been made for the reasons above set forth. That said application for the appointment of appraisers to appraise said community estate showed on its face that said Mrs. Lenora Williams died on September 11, 1891. That on April 2, 1902, the county court of Cooke county, Tex., was not in session, and that said application was presented in vacation, said inventory and appraisement was prepared and filed in vacation, and said two orders were made by B. F. Mitchell, judge of the county court of Cooke county, Tex., in vacation, and said two orders of B. F. Mitchell, county judge, were recorded in said probate minutes by the clerk of the county court of Cooke county, Tex., in vacation. That on April 2, 1902, and prior thereto, defendant John S. Steele knew that there were no community debts against the estate of said A. W. Williams, and assisted A. W. Williams in obtaining said two orders of the said B. F. Mitchell, county judge, made in vacation; and defendant was therefore a party to the fraud in law which was practiced on these plaintiffs by the proceedings had in vacation in said pretended community administration. That afterwards, on the 2d day of April. 1902, the said A. W. Williams, as such community administrator, joined by his second wife Mrs. Bettie A. Williams, sold and conveyed said property to the defendant John S. Steele by deed recorded in Book 84, page 178, Deed Records of Cooke County, Tex., to which reference is hereby expressly made, and that defendant John S. Steele and his wife, Mrs. Adaline Steele, are now in possession of and claiming said land under the said deed, which was made by virtue of said orders. That the said A. W. Williams is now dead. That he left no property subject to execution and was insolvent at the time of his death. That in said inventory and appraisement of said community estate there was listed no property, except said 80 acres of land, and no other property was owned by the community estate of the said A. W. Williams and Mrs. Lenora Williams at the date of the execution of said inventory and appraisement except said 80 acres of land. That the said John S. Steele and Mrs. Adaline Steele are claiming title and possession...
