Brockenborough v. Melton

Citations

• 55 Tex. 493
• 1881 Tex. LEXIS 146

Syllabus

<p>1. Registration.— The legality of the registration of an instrument, under which the clerk of the county court takes a benefit, is not affected by the fact that he records it.</p> <p>2. Jurisdiction.—The finding of a court of general jurisdiction in regard to the jurisdictional facts on which its judgment is based is conclusive against all collateral attacks, except in cases where the record of its own proceedings disclosed their nullity by showing that jurisdiction had never attached in the particular case.</p> <p>3. Jurisdiction—Administration.— One who had resided elsewhere in Texas died in Galveston in 1844, where it did not clearly appear that he had a fixed domicile. Administration was granted on his estate to his wife in Galveston county. She qualified, and filed a partial inventory, but nothing more was done either by herself or that court touching the succession. Afterwards, in 1845, letters de bonis non were granted on the same estate to the brother of the deceased, in Bastrop county, where the decedent once lived and owned property. The jurisdiction of the court in Bastrop county was exercised on an application for letters, which recited the former grant of letters and that the administratrix intended to resign. Under the letters last granted a full inventory showing a large estate was filed, and the estate administered. The validity of the Bastrop administration was attacked in a suit brought in 1878. Held,</p> <p>(1) That in a collateral attack the jurisdiction of the Bastrop court being invoked on a contemplated resignation and abandonment of the Galveston administration, it will be conclusively presumed that the contingency happened which would validate the grant of letters by the Bastrop court.</p> <p>(3) That presumption is strengthened by an acquiescence for thirty years in the j>roceedings of the Bastrop court by all parties having an interest; by the further fact that it did not appear clearly that the deceased had a fixed residence in Galvest