Court Opinion

ID: 9693704
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 16:57:52.277266+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:08:17.481244
License: Public Domain

COLEMAN, Justice.
This is a petition for an alternative writ of mandamus to be directed to the respondent, as Judge of the Tenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama, to require him to set aside the “Decree Rescinding and Annulling Decree Removing Cause from Probate Court” and to reinstate the “Decree Removing Cause from Probate Court.”
From the allegations of the petition which are admitted by the answer, it appears that administration of the estate of Richard Benito Carroll, deceased, was pending in the Probate Court of Jefferson County, and that the petitioner in this proceeding for mandamus had presented to the respondent a petition praying for removal of the administration from the probate court to the circuit court, in equity, as provided by § 139 of Title 13, Code 1940.
Pursuant to the petition for removal, the respondent, at approximately 10:45 A.M. on July 23, 1958, entered an order removing the administration of decedent’s estate to the Circuit Court of Jefferson County, Alabama, in equity.
Thereafter, at 3:45 P.M. on the same day, respondent rendered a decree vacating the prior order of removal. In pertinent part the latter decree, which is here complained of, recites as follows:
“The court is of the opinion that had it been informed of the status of this litigation in the Probate Court that the order of removal would not have been entered. Accordingly, it is hereby ordered adjudged and decreed that the order heretofore entered removing this estate to the Probate (Sic: Circuit) Court be and the same is hereby set aside, and annulled.”
We are of opinion that the rule nisi was improvidently issued and that the writ of mandamus prayed for in this court must be denied because the decree sought to be revised in the instant proceeding will support an appeal, Ex parte Kelly, infra, and it is established that mandamus will not be granted where petitioner has adequate remedy by appeal. State ex rel. Walker’s Heirs v. Judge of Orphans’ Court, 15 Ala. 740; Ex parte Schmidt, 62 Ala. 252; Leigh v. State, 69 Ala. 261; State ex rel. Pinney v. Williams, 69 Ala. 311, 316; Ex parte Hurn, 92 Ala. 102, 104, 9 So. 515, 13 L.R.A. 120; Ex parte Smith, 168 Ala. 179, 52 So. 895; Ex parte Wright, 225 Ala. 220, 142 So. 672; Ex parte Moore, 231 Ala. 209, 164 So. 210; Ex parte Taylor, 236 Ala. 219, 181 So. 760; American Mutual Liability Ins. Co. v. Agricola Furnace Co., 236 Ala. 535, 538, 183 So. 677; Ex parte Hartwell, 238 Ala. 62, 188 So. 891; Ex parte Moore, 244 Ala. 28, 12 So.2d 77; Ex parte Industrial Finance & Thrift Corp., 255 Ala. 464, 51 So.2d 894; Humphrey v. Lawson, 256 Ala. 198, 54 So.2d 439; Ingalls v. Ingalls, 259 Ala. 80, 65 So.2d 199; Van v. Parker, 266 Ala. 190, 94 So.2d 752.
In Ex parte Kelly, 243 Ala. 184, 8 So.2d 855, an appeal was taken from a decree of the circuit court, in equity, setting aside *355an order of removal and remanding an administration to the probate court.
The transcript in the Kelly case discloses that a judge of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County on February 13, 1942, entered an order removing the administration of the estate of Lawrence Kelly, deceased, from the probate court to the circuit court of that county. On February 16, 1942, the same judge entered an order setting aside the order of February 13th and remanding the administration to the probate court. In pertinent part the order of February 16th recites:
“Ordered, adjudged and decreed by the Court that the decree of this Court heretofore rendered on the 13th day of February, 1942, removing said cause from the Probate to the Circuit Court, Tenth Judicial Circuit of Alabama, Equity Division, be and the same is hereby set aside and the cause is hereby remanded to the Probate Court.”
From the decree of February 16, 1942, an appeal was taken. The error assigned was the rendition of the decree appealed from. This court reversed and remanded and said:
“The effect of the decree appealed from — remanding the administration of the estate to the probate court — was to put this branch of the case out of the circuit court, and was such final decree as will support the appeal. Bailey v. Southern Railway Co., 215 Ala. 677, 112 So. 203. * * (Emphasis supplied.) Ex parte Kelly, supra, 243 Ala. at page 187, 8 So.2d at page 857.
There is no difference in legal effect between the decree or order in the instant case and the decree in the Kelly case. Both decrees put the case out of the circuit court. Appeal and not mandamus is the proper method to review a decree such as the one here complained of.
Writ denied.
LAWSON, SIMPSON, GOODWYN, and MERRILL, JJ., concur.