Case Name: Underwood v. Underwood's Admr.
Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Kentucky
Decision Date: 1901-11-19
Citations: 111 Ky. 966
Docket Number: 
Parties: Underwood v. Underwood’s Admr.
Judges: 
Reporter: Kentucky Reports
Volume: 111
Pages: 966–975

Head Matter:
Case 112 — Controversy Originating in the McCracken County Court as to Whether G. B. Underwood shall be Appointed Administrator of the Estate of P. A. Underwood, Deceased, after said Estate .had been Ordered into the Hands of the Public-Administrator
Nov. 19.
Underwood v. Underwood’s Admr.
APPEAL FROM M’CRACKEN CIRCUIT COURT.
Judgment of the County Court Affirmed by t&e Circuit Court, and G. B. Underwood Appeals —
Reversed.
Executors and Administrators — Void Order Placing Estate in Hands of Public Administrator. i
Held: 1. Under Kentucky Statutes, section 3905, requiring the county court to confide to the public administrator the estate of a deceased person “if it shall appear, after the expiration of the three months from the .death of the decedent, that no one will qualify as executor or apply for administration,” the-county court has no jurisdiction to place the estate of a deceased person in the hands of the public administrator until after the lapse of the three months from the death, and then only in the event no Other person has applied for administration.
2. Where the county court .on the next day after the death of an intestate made an order placing his estate in the hands of the public administrator, a kinsman of the decedent, even though he may not have been entitled to administration, had such an interest as entitled him to appeal from an order refusing to set aside the order placing the estate in the hands of the public administrator.
WHEELER & MORTON and EDWARD W. HINES, attorneys for APPELLANT.
POINTS AND CITATIONS.
1. The order of the county court confiding the estate of the intestate to appellee as public administrator the next day_ after the intestate’s death, was unauthorized if not void, and the court should upon motion of appellant have set aside the order and granted letters of administration to him. Kentucky Statutes, secs. 3896, 3897, 3905.
2. The county court has power to revoke letters of administration granted to a person who was not entitled to administer. Renfro v. Trent, 1 J. J'. M., 604; Hawkins v. Robinson, 3 Mon., 143.
3. It was proper to appeal from the order refusing to set aside the order confiding the estate to appellee and not from the order sought to be set aside. Civil Code Pr., sec. 763.
HENDRICK and MILLER, eor appellee.
POINTS -DISCUSSED AND AUTHORITIES CITED.
1. An order made at one term of county .court can not be set aside .at a subsequent term, or modified or reversed on another order or judgment made at a subsequent term. Kelley v. Keizer, 3d Mar., 268; Snodgrass v. Adams, 7th J. J. M., 165; Anderson v. Anderson, 18 B. M., 98; Hocker v. Gentry, 3d Met., 469; Willis v. Yallette, 4th Met., 196; Conn v. Doyle, 2d Bibb, 248; Boyd county, etc., v. Ross, 95th Ky., 167.
The court can not, except in oases especially provided for by statute, open, alter, change, or reverse, a decree judgment or order, after the term at which it was made or rendered, except upon a bill of review, or a bill of like nature. Brooks V. Love, 3d Dana, page 7; Holbert v. Montgomery, 5th' Dana, 11; Emerson v. Herriford 8th Bush, 230.
“If courts of record could at different’ terms alter, modify or set aside orders or decrees made at former terms, there would be absolutely no stability in courts, or sacredness in judgments or orders.” 'Haldeman v. Haldeman, 3d B. M., 533.
2. The statute provides no way of taking an appeal from the or-der of the county court overruling a motion to set aside an order made at a previous term.
3. Query: Under our present statute and code, is there a right of appeal from the county court to the circuit court in the case of the appointment of an administrator?
4. A creditor or other person not a distributee of the estate has no right of appeal from .the action of a court which in its discretion declines to appoint him administrator. • Section 3897, Kentucky Statutes.'
5. In such ease, neither statute nor code provides for an appeal from the county court or the circuit court to this court.
6. The county court has general and exclusive jurisdiction in matters of probate, and in such matters may exercise a sound discretion as to the appointment of administrators, and when it acts within the scope of its jurisdiction, its orders are not void. Jacobs v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 20th Bush, 263; Masters v. Blenker, 87th‘ Ky., 1; Hall v. L. & N. R. R. Co., 19th Rep., 1529. And if a county court, where there are no relatives or distributees in the State eligible to the office of administrator, confides the estate to the hands of the public administrator, the order is not void, though three months may not have elapsed from the time of the death of the intestate. Secs. 3897, 3905, Kentucky Statutes.

Opinion:
Opinion op the court by
CHIEF JUSTICE PAYNTER
Reversing.
The intestate died in McCracken county on February 8, 1901. On the following day the county court of that county miadle an order placing the decedent's estate in the hands of the public administrator. The appellant, a kinsman of the decedent, though not a distributee, gave notice that he would move the court at the March term following to set aside the judgment placing the estate in the hands of the public administrator. The question here involved is as to the right of the county court to (confide the estate of a deceased person to the public administrator until after the expiration of three months, from his dteat'h, no one in the meantime having applied for letters of administration. The sections of the statute relating to the subject are as follows:
"Sec. 3896. The court having jurisdiction shall grant administration to the relations of the deceased who apply for the same, preferring the 'Surviving 'husband1 or wife, and then such others are next entitled to distribution, •or one or more of them whom the court 'shall judge will best manage the estate.
"Sec. 3897. If no such person apply for administration at the second county court from the death of an, intestate1 the court may grant administration to a creditor, or to any other person, in the discretion of the court. If a will shall afterward be produced and proved, the administrator shall cease, and the court may proceed to grant a certificate of the probate thereof, or, in the proper case, letters of administration, with the will annexed."
"Sec. 3905. The several county courts of this Commonwealth, in which there is a public administrator and guardian, shall confide to him the administration of the estate of deceased persons in all cases in which, by law, the jurisdiction to grant letters testamentary or administration applies, if it shall appear, after the expiration of three month's from the death of the decedent, that no one will qualify as executor or apply for administration. . . ."
No distributee of the estate applied to the county court to be appointed administrator of the estate. The second county court not having arrived, a creditor of the estate was not entitled to be appointed administrator' thereof. Section 3897. The Legislature intended (section 3905) that the county courts of this Commonwealth should only place the estates of deceased persons in the hands of the public administrator after the expiration of three months from the death of the decedent, and then in cases where no one will apply for administration. We are of the opinion that the county courts are without jurisdiction to place estates in the hands of public administrators, except under the circumstances provided in section 3905. It is a jurisdictional fact to be shown that the decedent has been dead more than three months, and that no one else has applied for letters of administration. If the county court can place the estate of a deceased person in the hand's of the public administrator under the circumstances in this case, then in every case the county court can, without consulting the distributees, kinsmen, or creditors of the estate, place the estate in the -hands of the public administrator immediately upon the death of the deceased, thus entailing in some instances great expense and loss to the estate. If the parties are required to appeal from the order of the county court to have it corrected, then much expense and delay will follow such litigation. We do not adjudge that the appellant is entitled to qualify as the personal representative of the estate, but, being a kinsman, he has such interest as enables him to prosecute this appeal.
The judgment is reversed, with directions that the circuit court remiand the case to the county court for its determination as to who is entitled to qualify as personal representative of the estate.
(Nov. 21, 1901.)