State v. McGlynn & Butler

Citations

• 20 Cal. 233
• 1862 Cal. LEXIS 50

Syllabus

<p>A decree of the Probate Court, admitting a will to probate, not reversed by the appellate Court, is final and conclusive, and is not liable to be vacated or questioned by any other Court, either incidentally or by a direct proceeding for the purpose of impeaching it.</p> <p>A will having been once admitted to probate, must, so long as the probate stands, be recognized and admitted in all courts to be valid.</p> <p>In England, it is well settled by a Ipng series of decisions, that the comprehensive jurisdiction exercised by Courts of Chancery in setting aside instruments obtained by fraud does not extend to wills, and that those Courts have no power to determine the validity of a will of either personal or real property.</p> <p>Courts of Chancery in England, in their eflbrts to defeat fraudulent practices, have, in some cases, deprived parties of the benefit of the fraudulent will, decreeing that such parties should hold the property under their will in for the parties who would have been entitled to it if such will had not been'/ probated, but in all such cases they have disclaimed any power to set asid® the will or the probate.</p> <p>In the United States, the Courts have uniformly held that the principles established in England apply and govern the cases arising under the probate laws of country, and that whenever, in any State, the power to probate a will is given to a Probate or Surrogate’s Court, the decree of such Court cannot bo set-aside or vacated by the Court of Chancery on the ground that it was obtained! by fraud, or on any other ground. I</p> <p>The probating of a will is not a proceeding to decide a contest between parties, but a proceeding in rem, to determine the character and validity of an instrument affecting the title to property, and which it is necessary for the repose of society should be definitely settled by one judgment; and therefore the decree of probate is conclusive, not only upon the parties who may be before the Court, but upon all