Stanley v. Safe Deposit & Trust Co.

Citations

• 87 Md. 450
• 40 A. 53
• 1898 Md. LEXIS 139

Syllabus

<p>Wills—Where to be Probated—Jurisdiction of Orphans’ Court to Determine Residence of Testator— When Question as to Residence Must be Raised—Appeal.</p> <p>An order of the Orphans’ Court passed in pursuance of its statutory jurisdiction is valid until reversed on appeal or set aside by its own order, although it should be made to appear that the order was not warranted by the facts of the case.</p> <p>Code, Art. 93, sec. 326. provides that a decedent’s will must be probated in the Orphans’ Court of the county where he resided, etc. Held, that when a will is offered for probate in a certain county the Orphans’ Court has jurisdiction to determine and must determine whether decedent was a resident of that county or not. When this question is decided by the admission of the will to probate and the grant of letters testamentary, without any issues being asked for to contest the question of residence, or any appeal taken from the order, such adjudication is conclusive upon the question of residence and it is too late, after the settlement of an account in that Court by the executors, to file a petition alleging that the decedent was not a resident of that county and asking that issues be sent to a Court of Law to determine the question of residence.</p> <p>The Court of Appeals must deal with cases as they are presented by the record, and it has no power, while reviewing the particular order from which an appeal was taken, to receive evidence or to remand the record for the Court below to hear testimony on a different question that in no way concerns the only issue brought before the Court of Appeals for review.</p>