Hoscheid v. Bartholet

Citations

• 78 Wash. 309
• 139 P. 61
• 1914 Wash. LEXIS 1016

Syllabus

<p>Executors and Administrators — Distribution—Notice by Publication — SuirrciENcy. Under Rem. & Bal. Code, § 1589, requiring notice of final distribution of an estate to be published at least four successive weeks, a notice is insufficient to confer jurisdiction to make an order of final distribution where less than four weeks, elapsed between the first publication and the date of the hearing.</p> <p>Wills — Probate—Contest — Limitations — Fraud — Revocation. Rem. & Bal. Code, § 1309, providing that the probate of a will shall be conclusive if no person shall appear to contest the same within one-year after probate is a statute of limitations, and bars any subsequent contest or proceeding at law or in equity to set aside the probate on the ground of fraud or that the will had been revoked by marriage.</p> <p>Same — Probate—Contest—Grounds—Fraud. Rem. & Bal. Code, § 1307, authorizing a contest of the probate of a will at any time-within one year, on the ground of want of testamentary capacity, restraint, undue influence and fraudulent representations “or for-any other cause affecting the validity of the will,” includes fraud in effecting the probate, and is not limited to causes affecting the-validity of the will at the time it was executed.</p> <p>Wills — Contest—Laches. A widow is guilty of laches, precluding any right to contest the probate of the will of her husband, where she learned of her husband’s death shortly thereafter, and employed an attorney who wrote a letter to a banker and was informed that. deceased left no property, and she relied on the information without prosecuting any other inquiry and took no steps to assert her claims for thirteen years after the expiration of the year allowed for filing a contest.</p>