Haynes v. Meeks

Citations

• 10 Cal. 110
• 1858 Cal. LEXIS 198

Syllabus

<p>The fair inference to he drawn from section one hundred of the “Act to Regulate the Settlement of the Estates of Deceased Persons,” is, that the permission given an executor or administrator to resign in the one case specified, is a negative on such right in all others. July Term, 1857.</p> <p>The Probate Judge is charged by law with the execution of special duties; he is not vested with plenary powers, but acts within an inferior and limited jurisdiction. Ib.</p> <p>The Probate Court has no power to accept the resignation of an administrator until he has first settled his accounts with the estate. Ib.</p> <p>Where an administrator filed in the Probate Court his resignation, and on the same day the Court made an order reciting that the administrator had filed his resignation, and requiring him to turn over to the public administrator all the effects of the estate, and that he settle with the public administrator by the first day of the next term, and when such settlement should be fully made, the administrator and his sureties be released, and where no final settlement was made: Held, that such act was an acceptance, on the part of the Court, of such resignation.' January Term, 1858.</p> <p>The Court had no righti*to accept the resignation of the administrator until he had settled his account with the estate, Ib.</p> <p>But having exercised the right so to do, the error of the Court was merely voidable, and can not be taken advantage of collaterally. Ib.</p> <p>The facts of the death of the intestate, and of his residence within the county, are foundation facts, upon which all the subsequent proceedings of the Court must rest. Unless these facts exist, the Court can not make a single binding order in reference either to the subject-matter or the person. Ib.</p> <p>But when these facts do exist, every subsequent movement of the Court, is the exercise of jurisdiction over the subject-matter, and over all persons who have been brought properly before it. Ib.</p>