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40 Ala. 296

Griffin v. Griffin

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1866

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1866-06-15

In the matter of the petition of Mrs. Sarah J. Griffin, to vacate and set aside a decree which had been rendered against her by said probate court, on final settlement of her accounts and vouchers as administratrix of the estate of Thomas Griffin, deceased. The petition was filed on the 5th February, 1866, _ and the decree which it sought to set aside was rendered on the 18th December, 1864.

Relies on Watson v. Hutto · Claiborne v. Harris

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1866-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 4 later decisions — most recently June 1907

4 state decisions

1018661870188018901900decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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JUDGE, J.

¶1In this case, the administratrix applied to the probate court to set aside a decree which had been rendered against her upon the final settlement of the estate of her intestate, more than two years before the date of the application. This action of the court was invoked, mainly, on the ground that she had been erroneously charged on the settlement with the amount of several promissory notes, (assets of the estate,) remaining in her hands uncollected at the time of the settlement.

¶2If the decree of the probate court was erroneous, it was not void, and is as conclusive as a decree in chancery, or a judgment of a circuit court; and after the expiration of the term at which it was rendered, the probate court had no power to set it aside, upon grounds which go only to t matters behind the decree, although such grounds may be true in point of fact.— Watson v. Hutto, 27 Ala. 513, and authorities there cited; especially the case of Slatter v. Glover, 11 Ala. 648.

¶3Let the decree of the court below be affirmed.

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