11 Tex. 102 | Tex. | 1853
The appellant filed his bill or petition in the District Court of Travis county, praying a distribution of the estate of his father, James Smith. He alleges that his father died in 1845 ; that, on the 25th of March, A. D., 1845, the administration was committed to Elizabeth Smith, widow of his father, and Alfred Smith, two of the defendants; alleges various acts of maladministration, (some of them will be noticed;) that one of the defendants, Sidney P. Brown, claims now to be the administrator de bonis non on the said estate, and
The defendants pleaded to the jurisdiction of the Court, on the ground that the District Court could not take original jurisdiction, and that the estate was still in progress of settlement and open in the Probate Court, as appears by the petition. The District Court sustained the plea, and dismissed the case, on the plaintiff declining to amend his petition. And the plaintiff appealed. .The decision of the Court, in sustaining the plea to the jurisdiction of the Court, is assigned for error. The plea to the jurisdiction admits the facts charged in the petition, to be true, but maintains that those facts do not present a case that will give jurisdiction to the Court, in an original action. It is not contended but the District Court would have appellate jurisdiction.
The grounds upon which this Court will sustain the exercise of original jurisdiction by the District Court, have been discussed in several cases, heretofore decided. In Dobbin, adm’r, v. Bryan, 4 Tex. R. 276, it was decided by the Court, that the District Courts have jurisdiction to investigate and arrest a fraudulent combination between an administrator and others, confederating to injure those interested in the faithful administration of the estate; that fraudulent combination had always been a fruitfull source for the exercise of equity jurisdiction. And there can be no doubt but both fraud and trusts would authorise the exercise of original jurisdiction by the District Court. We said in the case above cited, that, from its organization, the Probate Court, being so limited in its jurisdiction, cannot well investigate the facts constituting the fraud. The same difficulty would arise in the investigation of, and executing trusts. In Long et al. v. Wortham, 4 Tex. R. 831, we sustained the original jurisdiction of the District Court, in suspending an executor and appointing a receiver. In Merle v. Andrews, 4 Tex. R. 200, it was ruled that a moneyed de
The petition presents other facts, that, if not sufficient of themselves to establish fraud, tend strongly to impeach the fidelity of the defendant Elizabeth, to the trust reposed in her. No inventory had been returned, a large estate had been received into her custody for administration; it was not in debt, and large sums of money had been received, and about eight years had elapsed, from the grant of administration, to the commencement of this suit, and no distribution made, nothing
Reversed and remanded.