Lala Ruth Burke v. Robert W. Satterfield

This controversy arose out of a demand for an accounting pursuant to Section 149A of the Texas Probate Code from an independent executrix which was filed in a county court at law, sitting in matters probate, by a devisee under the will. The executrix thereafter sought to file in the same court a final accounting under Section 151 to which the devisee has leveled numerous objections and exceptions. The probate court, however, on its own motion subsequently overruled and dismissed these objections and exceptions for lack of jurisdiction. Upon appeal, the court of civil appeals reversed and remanded, holding that the probate court had jurisdiction to entertain the objections and exceptions filed by the devisee because the executrixs prayer in her final accounting, asking for all interested parties to be notified and that she be discharged from all liability, invoked the potential jurisdiction of the probate court to determine the correctness of the accounting. 514 S.W.2d 138. We agree, but for a different reason, that the judgment of the court of civil appeals was correct as to the probate courts jurisdiction to determine the executrixs compliance with Section 149A. As set out in the partial dissenting opinion at 516 S.W.2d 693, however, the objections complaining of the failure by the independent executrix to comply with a prior district court judgment and the attack upon the commission claimed by the executrix would not be within the probate courts jurisdiction; and we therefore modify that portion of the judgment which would remand these questions back to the probate court for consideration.