19 S.W.2d 862 | Tex. App. | 1929
The contention presented by the assignments in appellants' brief is that the trial court erred when he concluded the order of the county court of Nacogdoches county approving the guardian's final account and discharging him and his sureties was a valid one and conclusively established that appellants were not entitled to recover anything in their suit on the guardian's bond.
In support of the contention it is insisted that, when the ward died in 1922, said county court "lost jurisdiction (quoting from said brief) to even cast up the account between such guardian and his ward," and that the order in question therefore was void. It may be, after the ward died, the county court had power only to settle and close the guardianship; but, clearly, power to do that continued in said county court, and it was only exercising that power when it made the order in question. Section 16 of article 5 of the Constitution; articles 4102 and 4296, Rev.St. 1925; Timmins v. Bonner,
In further support of their contention appellants insist that on the filing of their suit the district court of Rusk county acquired jurisdiction of the matter of the account between the ward and the guardian; and that, having acquired such jurisdiction, said court retained it to the exclusion of any right in said county court of Nacogdoches county to in any way interfere with the exercise thereof. We agree with appellants so far as their insistence is that the district court of Rusk county had a right to hear and determine their suit on the guardian's bond. That a district court has power to hear such a suit where the amount exceeds $500 is settled by decisions of the courts of this state. Carpenter v. Soloman (Tex.)
As we see it, the question presented by the record is not one of jurisdiction, as appellants see it, but is one as to the effect of the judgment of the county court of Nacogdoches county when offered by all the parties and admitted as evidence at the trial of this cause in the district court of Rusk county. The rule is that a judgment of a probate court within its jurisdiction is presumed to have been regularly made and entered, and, until set aside in a proceeding commenced for the purpose in the court which rendered it, is conclusive of the matter it determines. Hornung v. Schramm,
The county court of Nacogdoches county having had power to make an order like the one in question here, as we have determined, there being nothing in the record sent to this court showing that the power said county court had was not effectually invoked, and nothing showing that the order made was ever set aside, we feel bound to hold, contrary to appellants' contention, that the trial court did not err when he held that the order in question established, conclusively, that appellants did not have a right to recover as they sought to on the guardian's bond, and when he rendered judgment in appellees' favor.
*911The judgment is affirmed.