Source: https://askalawyer.com/probate-case-law-farrell-v-obrien-supreme-court-of-united-states/
Timestamp: 2019-04-18 15:34:25+00:00

Document:
Argued April 4, 5, 1905.
APPEAL FROM AND CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT.
Mr. James B. Howe, with whom Mr. Samuel H. Piles, Mr. George Donworth, Mr. Charles H. Farrell and Mr. Frederic D. McKenney were on the brief, for the petitioners.
Mr. William F. Hays, Mr. J.P. Houser, Mr. Joseph W. Robinson and Mr. John H. Mitchell for respondents submitted.
The motion to dismiss the appeal and the application for the allowance of a writ of certiorari will first be passed upon.
While the alienage of complainants and the citizenship of respondents was alleged, the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court was not invoked solely upon that ground. It was asserted in the bill that the requirements of the Code of Washington had not been complied with in respect to the preliminary issue of citations to the next of kin of the decedent; that the hearing on the application to probate the alleged nuncupative will was had before service of citations in the mode prescribed by law, and as at the time of the filing of the bill six months had elapsed without lawful probate of the will, the title of complainants to the property as heirs and next of kin of the intestate had become absolute. The use by the defendant Carrau of the decree of probate as a muniment of title with which to obtain from the administrator under the authority of the state court the property of complainants in the custody of the administrator was, as a consequence, asserted to amount to a muniment of title without due process of law, in violation of the Constitution of the United States.
“No proof shall be received of any nuncupative will unless offered within six months after speaking the testamentary words, nor unless the words or the substance thereof be first committed to writing and a citation issued to the widow or next of kin of the deceased, that they may contest the will if they think proper.” Pierce’s Code, 2352.
It is settled that the mere averment of a constitutional question is not sufficient, where the question sought to be presented is so wanting in merit as to cause it to be frivolous or without any support whatever in reason. Fayerweather v. Ritch, 195 U.S. 276, 299. We think that the alleged violations of Federal right based upon the Fourteenth Amendment were so unsubstantial and devoid of merit that they furnish no real support to the contention that the decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals was not final. From this it follows that the motion to dismiss must prevail. But we are not thereby relieved of the duty of considering the correctness of the decree of the Circuit Court of Appeals, because in our opinion the case is one in which the writ of certiorari should be allowed. We therefore dismiss the appeal and grant the application for certiorari, treating the record filed on the appeal as a return to that writ. Before coming, however, to dispose of the case, we observe that we do not at this moment state the reasons by which we are led to the conclusion that the rights asserted under the Constitution of the United States were so wholly wanting in merit as not to afford a basis for the appeal, because those reasons will be made manifest when we come to consider the question whether the bill was one within the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court.
The solution of the question is not free from complexity. Original reasoning is not, however, required, since the subject has been previously considered by this court. We come, therefore, to an analysis of the leading cases. It results from the analysis which we have made of the bill that by necessary effect it assailed the previous probate and the existence of the will, and, besides, under the hypothesis that a will and probate might be found to exist, sought to limit the operation and effect of the will. The subject, therefore, has a twofold aspect, the power of Federal courts to entertain jurisdiction concerning the probate or the revocation of the probate of wills, where the requisite diversity of citizenship exists, and the power of those courts, where such diversity obtains, to adjudicate concerning rights against the estates of decedents. Whilst we shall consider these two subjects separately, to avoid repetition we shall first consecutively analyze the cases concerning both subjects.
“We are of opinion that all that part of the decree which attempts to settle the rights of the parties, who were neither plaintiffs nor defendants in the original suit, must be reversed.
“As to the first point, it is undoubtedly the general rule, established both in England and this country, that a court of equity will not entertain jurisdiction of a bill to set aside a will or the probate thereof. The case of Kerrick v. Bransby, decided by the House of Lords in 1727, is considered as having definitely settled the question. Whatever may have been the original ground of this rule (perhaps something in the peculiar constitution of the English courts) the most satisfactory ground for its continued prevalence is, that the constitution of a succession to a deceased person’s estate partakes, in some degree, of the nature of a proceeding in rem, in which all persons in the world who have any interest are deemed parties, and are concluded as upon res judicata by the decision of the court having jurisdiction. The public interest requires that the estates of deceased persons, being deprived of a master, and subject to all manner of claims, should at once devolve to a new and competent ownership; and, consequently, that there should be some convenient jurisdiction and mode of proceeding by which this devolution may be effected with least chance of injustice and fraud; and that the result attained should be firm and perpetual. The courts invested with this jurisdiction should have ample powers both of process and investigation, and sufficient opportunity should be given to check and revise proceedings tainted with mistake, fraud, or illegality. These objects are generally accomplished by the constitution and powers which are given to the Probate Courts, and the modes provided for reviewing their proceedings. And one of the principal reasons assigned by the equity courts for not entertaining bills on questions of probate is, that the Probate Courts themselves have all the powers and machinery necessary to give full and adequate relief.
“It remains, therefore, in the present case to inquire whether the complainants are entitled, under the laws of Louisiana, to draw in question, in this mode and with a view to the decree sought, the validity of the will of Sarah Ann Dorsey and the integrity of its probate.
In Byers v. McAuley, 149 U.S. 608, it was decided that a Federal court cannot exercise original jurisdiction in respect to the administration of the estate of a decedent, and that it cannot, by entertaining jurisdiction of a suit against the administrator, draw to itself the full possession of the estate, or the power of determining all claims against or to it. It was, however, decided that where the estate of a deceased person is ready for distribution, but no adjudication has been made as to the distributees, the Circuit Court can entertain jurisdiction in favor of citizens of other States to determine and award their shares in the estate. It is true that the bill filed in the case assailed the validity of the probate of a document which disposed, in favor of two corporations, of a house and lot in the city of Pittsburg. But the trial court gave effect to the document as a declaration of trust, and the controversy on that branch of the case was not pressed on the appeal.
First. That, as the authority to make wills is derived from the State and the requirement of probate is but a regulation to make a will effective, matters of pure probate, in the strict sense of the words, are not within the jurisdiction of courts of the United States.
Second. That where a state law, statutory or customary, gives to the citizens of the State, in an action or suit inter partes, the right to question at law the probate of a will or to assail probate in a suit in equity the courts of the United States in administering the rights of citizens of other States or aliens will enforce such remedies.
The only dispute possible under these propositions may arise from a difference of opinion as to the true significance of the expression “action or suit inter partes,” as employed in the second proposition. When that question is cleared up the propositions are so conclusively settled by the cases referred to that they are indisputable. Before coming to apply the propositions we must, therefore, accurately fix the meaning of the words action or suit inter partes.
The cited authorities establish that the words referred to must relate only to independent controversies inter partes, and not to mere controversies which may arise on an application to probate a will because the state law provides for notice, or to disputes concerning the setting aside of a probate, when the remedy to set aside afforded by the state law is a mere continuation of the probate proceeding, that is to say, merely a method of procedure ancillary to the original probate, allowed by the state law for the purpose of giving to the probate its ultimate and final effect. We say the words action or suit inter partes must have this significance, because unless that be their import it would follow that a State may not allow any question to be raised concerning the right to probate at the time of the application, or any such question thereafter to be made in an ancillary probate proceeding without depriving itself of its concededly exclusive authority over the probate of wills. This may be readily illustrated. Thus, if a state law provides for any form of notice on an application to probate a will and authorizes a contest before the admission of the writing to probate, then it would follow, if the words suit or action of inter partes embrace such a contest, the proof of wills, if contested by a citizen of another State or alien, would be cognizable in the courts of the United States and hence not under the exclusive control of the state probate court. Again, if a State authorized a will to be proved in common form, that is, without notice, and allowed a supplementary probate proceeding by which the probate in common form could be contested, then, again, if such a contest be a suit inter partes it would also be of Federal cognizance.
Having fixed the meaning of the words action or suit inter partes we come to apply the propositions deduced from the decided cases, in order to test the question of the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court over the relief prayed for in the bill, so far as relates to the annulment of the probate. This requires us to determine, whether by custom or by the statute law of the State of Washington, the courts of that State had the power of administering the relief prayed for on that subject in the bill by an independent suit as distinguished from the exercise of probate jurisdiction originally or merely ancillary. There is no pretense of any custom in the State of Washington beyond the scope of the authority conferred upon the courts of the State by the laws thereof. The question, therefore, reduces itself to a narrow compass, that is, what remedies do the laws of Washington create for the purpose of the probate of wills and the revocation of a probate, and are those remedies exclusively probate in their character or necessarily merely ancillary thereto, or do they confer upon the state courts general legal or equitable authority on the subject merely because of the existence of a controversy? That is to say, is a will contest under the laws of Washington an ordinary action or suit between parties or a special probate proceeding directly ancillary to or concerning the probate of the will?
“1. To take proof of wills, and to grant letters testamentary and of administration. . . .
“2. To settle the estates of deceased persons, and the accounts of executors, administrators, and guardians.
“3. To allow or reject claims against the estates of the deceased persons as hereinafter provided.
“5. To award process, and cause to come before them all persons whom they may deem it necessary to examine, whether parties or witnesses or, who, as executors, administrators, or guardians, or otherwise, shall be intrusted with or in any way accountable for any property belonging to any minor, orphan, or person of unsound mind, or estate of any deceased person.
“6. To order and cause to be issued all writs which may be necessary to the exercise of their jurisdiction.” Ballinger’s Annotated Codes and Statutes of Washington, sec. 6075.
Applications for the probate of a will or for letters testamentary are required to be made to the judge of the Superior Court having jurisdiction, and he is authorized, in the case of ordinary wills, on the exhibition of the will, to receive the proof and grant a certificate of probate, or if such will be rejected to issue a certificate of rejection. Ballinger, ßß 681, 862, 6100. Testimony given in support of a will is to be reduced to writing, signed by the witnesses, and certified by the judge of the court, and wills admitted to probate are required to be recorded. Ballinger, ßß 6105, 6106.
“No proof shall be received of any nuncupative will, unless it be offered within six months after speaking the testamentary words, nor unless the words, or the substance thereof, be first committed to writing, and a citation issued to the widow or next of kin of the deceased, that they may contest the will if they think proper.” Ballinger, ß 4606.
“If any person interested in any will shall appear within one year after the probate or rejection thereof, and, by petition to the superior court having jurisdiction, contests the validity of said will, or prays to have the will proven which has been rejected, he shall file a petition containing his objections and exceptions to said will, or the rejection thereof. Issues shall be made up, tried and determined in said court respecting the competency of the deceased to make last will and testament, or respecting the execution by the deceased of such last will and testament under restraint or undue influence or fraudulent representation, or for any other cause affecting the validity of such will.” Ballinger, ß 6110.
“Upon the filing of the petition referred to in the next preceding section, a citation shall be issued to the executors who have taken upon them the execution of the will, or to the administrators with the will annexed, and to all legatees named in the will residing in the State, or to their guardians if any of them are minors, or their personal representatives if any of them are dead, requiring them to appear before the court on a day therein specified, to show cause why the petition should not be granted.” Ballinger, ß 6111.
“If, upon the trial of said issue, it shall be decided that the will is for any reason invalid, or that it is not sufficiently proved to have been the last will of the testator, the will and probate thereof shall be annulled and revoked.” Ballinger, ß 6114.
These statutory provisions have been decided by the Supreme Court of Washington to apply as well to a contest of a nuncupative will as to one of an ordinary will. State ex rel. Stratton, Attorney General, v. Tallman, Judge, 25 Wash. 295; 29 Wash. 317.
It is insisted in argument that the Supreme Court of Washington has referred to a will contest under the statutes of that State as a suit or action, and from this the inference is deduced that the proceeding is one inter partes, in the broad sense of the term, and not a part of the probate proceedings. But we do not consider that the cases relied on do more than use the term suit or action as a convenient form of expression. The view taken by the Supreme Court of Washington as to the substantive nature of a will contest is illustrated by its opinion in Hunt v. Phillips, 34 Washington, 362, where the court, in opening its opinion, referred to the case before it as “a proceeding in contest of the will,” etc.
But the opinion of the Supreme Court of Washington as to the nature of a will contest under the statute of Washington does not depend upon the mere inference deducible from the characterization which the court has given to that proceeding. In Montrose v. Byrne, 24 Washington, 288, it was expressly held that the statutory proceeding to establish a will was special in its character, so much so that in a contest concerning the same the parties were necessarily limited to the question of the execution or validity of the will and the right to admit the same to probate, and therefore issues concerning the construction of the will or the vesting of property thereunder could not be considered in a contest proceeding.
It follows that as the Circuit Court of the United States had no jurisdiction to admit a will to probate, or to entertain a pure probate proceeding, and as the remedy afforded by the laws of Washington to secure the probate or the revocation of the probate of a will were proceedings of a purely probate character, and not an action or suit inter partes, the Circuit Court of Appeals correctly decided that the Circuit Court, although there was diversity of citizenship, was without jurisdiction of the cause so far as the bill sought a declaration of the non-existence of a will and the consequent nullity of the probate.
It remains only to consider the bill under its other aspects. The contention that the state court in admitting the nuncupative will to probate violated the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States rests upon two propositions: (a) The law of the State, it is contended, required that proof of an alleged nuncupative will should be offered within six months after the speaking of the testamentary words, and that notice should issue to the next of kin as a prerequisite to the power to entertain the application for probate. As here it is said the proof established that the hearing as to probate was had without the notice required by the statute, therefore the admission to probate was a violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. (b) As under the laws of Washington it is asserted real estate could not be devised by a nuncupative will, therefore, the contention is, the Probate Court had no jurisdiction over such real estate or the rents, issues and profits thereof, and hence an attempt by that court to exert authority over that character of property amounted to depriving the heirs at law of such property without due process of law, in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
We are of opinion that the proposition, resting upon the want of notice, did not furnish a basis for the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court. The contention rests upon the assumption that the failure to give the notice under the state law was so essentially a prerequisite to a hearing on the question of probate that a probate made without the notice was null and void, and could collaterally be so treated. In State ex rel. Stratton, Attorney General, v. Tallman, Judge of the Superior Court, 25 Washington, 295, the contrary doctrine was expressly held. That case concerned a collateral controversy relating to the very estate here in question. The Attorney General had filed in the Probate Court a motion praying for the vacation of the order admitting the will to probate, and to set aside all the proceedings leading up to the probate of the will, upon the grounds that the court acquired no jurisdiction to hear any evidence in support of the will, because no citation was issued as required by law as the citation was issued on the day it bears date, and was immediately returned by the sheriff without making any effort to find any of the heirs of deceased or any person interested in the estate, and because the deceased never made or attempted to publish and declare the will. The Probate Court having refused to entertain the motion, for the reason that the State was not an interested party, original proceedings by mandamus were commenced in the Supreme Court of the State to compel the court to hear and decide the motion. The Supreme Court, however, refused the writ, on the ground that any appropriate proceeding to contest the probate was provided in the statutes, which gave a year in which to make the contest, and that, conceding the interest of the State, it nevertheless could not by a mere motion raise the question of the validity of the probate. But, let us concede, for the sake of the argument only, that under the Washington statutes the requirement of notice was essential to the preliminary probate, and if by its omission the parties were deprived of or lost their right to deny the existence of the will, or to question its probate, that the absence of the notice might afford substantial ground to contend that rights protected by the Constitution of the United States had been violated. These concessions, however, cannot control this case. As the theory of the bill was, and as undoubtedly it was also the law of Washington, that despite the mere preliminary admission to probate, there was full right to assail the existence of the will and its probate, which was not lost by the failure to give notice, it must follow that such omission did not deprive of the right to a hearing, which right was adequately conferred by the statute, wholly irrespective of whether the notice on the preliminary probate had or had not been given. Indeed, the contention made on this subject amounts to asserting that every state law which provides for a probate in common form is repugnant to the due process clause of the Constitution, even although under the state statutes full and adequate probate remedies are provided by which interested parties may subsequently, within a time fixed by law, be heard in the probate proceedings to question the existence of a will or its probate. When the result of the proposition is thus ascertained it becomes obvious that it is not only opposed to the theory upon which the bill was framed, but is so in conflict with the adjudications of this court, to which we have previously referred, that it is devoid of all foundation in reason to such an extent as to prevent it from affording a basis for the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court.
We think also the claim of the want of due process of law arising from the contention that in the State of Washington a nuncupative will does not pass title to real estate, and therefore a violation of the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment would arise if the Probate Court acted upon the contrary assumption, was clearly devoid of all reasonable foundation. It is not denied that under the law of Washington, in cases of intestacy as well as of testacy, both real and personal property is taken into the control of and is administered by the Probate Court. And as it is obvious on the face of the bill that the averment referred to was wholly subordinate to the determination of the existence of the alleged nuncupative will and the validity of the probate thereof, a question over which the Circuit Court did not have jurisdiction, it results that the bill upon constitutional or other grounds, did not present a case warranting the court in passing upon the construction and effect of the will.
 Originally docketed as O’Callaghan v. O’Brien.

References: v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v.