Thomas v. People ex rel. Joiner

Citations

• 107 Ill. 517
• 1883 Ill. LEXIS 291

Syllabus

<p>1. Administration—on live man’s estate, null and void. A grant of administration on the estate of a person who is living, together with all acts done under such grant, is absolutely null and void. The only jurisdiction the county court has in respect to the administration of estates, is over the estate of deceased persons.</p> <p>2. In this case moneys which were the proceeds of a sale in partition came to the hands of the master in chancery. Prior to that time, one of the parties in interest had absented himself from his home, and not having been heard from by his relatives or acquaintances for more than seven years, administration was granted on his estate, on the hypothesis he was dead. The master in chancery thereupon paid over to the administrator the portion of the money belonging to his supposed intestate. It turned out that the person supposed to be dead was still alive, and it was held, he was entitled to recover from the master the money which had come to his hands, and which he had improperly paid over under the void grant of administration.</p> <p>3. Jurisdiction—must be founded on law, not on pleadings alone. Jurisdiction, in the general and most appropriate sense of that term, as applied to the subject matter of a suit, is always conferred by law, and it is a fatal error to suppose the power to decide in any case rests solely upomthe averments in a pleading. While the court must be called upon to act and decide by a party before it can proceed, yet behind this, power must be conferred by law to act in a real case of the character of the one supposed by the pleading or complaint. “</p> <p>4. Judgment—binds parties only. The general rule is, that no one is bound by an adjudication in a suit of which he had no notice, or to which he was not a party.</p>