Court Opinion

ID: 9559915
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 17:38:01.04646+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:11:51.137971
License: Public Domain

OPALA, Justice,
concurring.
The presence in a probate record of an admitted holographic will does not ipso fac-to translate into a facially void judgment roll in the case. If the court1 sitting in probate had jurisdiction of the parties and of the subject matter, it also had cognizance either to admit or to refuse admission to the propounded testamentary instrument, i.e., it had the power to enter the very order here in contest regardless of whether its decision was legally wrong or error-free. The admission of a will that is facially void does not constitute an infirmity that impairs the court’s jurisdiction to act as it sees fit on the probate issue clearly tendered for its resolution. At most, an unwarranted will’s admission is legal error to be corrected in a timely appeal or within the time allowed for a statutory vacation proceeding. Mayhue v. Mayhue, Okl., 706 P.2d 890, 893-895 (1985).