Court Opinion

ID: 9763917
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:00:57.160298+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:51.146163
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Walker,
concurring.
I concur in the order directing that the appeal be dismissed, but do not agree with the majority that the probate court simply heard the evidence, concluded that petitioners had such interest as to entitle them to contest the probated will, and accordingly overruled the motion to dismiss. In my opinion the Court of Civil Appeals was correct in its conclusion that the net effect of the order was to deny respondents the right to require petitioners to show interest, but it should not be material to our decision whether the probate court overruled the motion to dismiss or sustained the motion to quash.
As pointed out by the majority, an order overruling a motion to dismiss is interlocutory and not appealable because it does not dispose of the issue or controverted question for which that particular part of the probate proceeding was brought. Kelley v. Barnhill, 144 Texas 14, 188 S.W. 2d 295. In the present case *348that question is whether the probate of the 1955 will and the codicil attached thereto should be set aside. Obviously this issue is not finally determined by the probate court when it overrules a motion to dismiss for lack of interest, and I fail to see how it could possibly be regarded as determined by the quashing of such a motion. In either event the controverted question before the court and for which the proceeding was brought is still pending in the probate court for decision.
Opinion delivered January 20, 1960.