80 Md. 20 | Md. | 1894
delivered the opinion of the Court.
After the death of John H. Keene, Sr., and before his executors propounded his will for probate, two of his sons filed in the Orphans’ Court of Baltimore County a written objection to the probate of the will. Later on the will was
The question thus presented is free from any difficulty. By Secs. 230 and 323 of Art. 93 of the Code, the Orphans’ Courts are given jurisdiction to admit wills to probate. Under Secs. 322, 328 and 329, the method of doing this is prescribed. Notice is required to be first given to such of the next relations of the deceased as may conveniently be served therewith, as to the time of exhibiting the will for probate; and if, after such notice has been given, no objection shall be made or no caveat shall be filed, the Court is authorized to proceed and take the proof of the execution and publication of the will. The authority to thus proceed and admit the will to probate obviously and in terms depends upon the giving of the notice and the absence of an objection or a caveat. Orphans’ Courts are tribunals of limited jurisdiction. Their proceedings, when assailed on appeal, must show a compliance with the provisions of the statutes conferring jurisdiction upon them; and those proceedings must be in conformity with and not repugnant to the statutes. Now, in the case before us, the plain letter of the statute, as well as its manifest purpose and intention, permits the Orphans’ Courts to admit a will to probate only after notice has been given, and if there be no objection and no caveat filed. The filing of a caveat at any stage before an order has been signed admitting the will to probate arrests all
Order reversed and cause remanded.