Metzger's Estate

Citations

• 242 Pa. 69
• 88 A. 915
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 839

Syllabus

<p>Orphans’ Court — Jurisdiction—Decree of Superior Court — Bes adjudícala — Judgments—Collateral attack.</p> <p>1. The judgment or decree of a court of competent jurisdiction, valid and regular on its face, in force and unreversed, cannot be impeached by the parties or privies thereto or by a stranger in a collateral proceeding in the same or another court. It is conclusive not only as to the judgment or decree itself, but as to every fact directly or necessarily adjudicated or which was necessarily involved in or was material to the adjudication.</p> <p>2. Where in the adjudication of an estate, the Orphans’ Court had awarded the rentals of certain realty to certain claimants, and the Superior Court on appeal reversed the decree and awarded the rentals, to certain other claimants, from which decree no appeal was taken to the Supreme Court, the matter of the award of the rentals is res ad judicata and cannot subsequently be attacked in a collateral proceeding, even though in the meantime the Supreme Court may have decided that the claimants to whom the rentals were awarded were not the owners of the realty.</p>