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56 Ala. 612

Jones v. Jones

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided December 15, 1876

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1876-12-15

In the matter of the petition of William A. M. Jones, James G. Jones, and John C. Jones, for the sale of certain property, real and personal, for the purpose of making an equitable division or partition themselves and the other joint owners, several of whom were infants. The petition was filed on the 9th September, 1873, and was set for hearing on the 6th October; and on that day, a decree was rendered, ordering a sale as prayed, and appointing commissioners to conduct it.

Relies on Johnston v. Shaw

Decided 1876-12-15

STONE, J.

¶1It is the duty of all courts to guard and protect the rights of infants, and not to hold them estopped by a mere failure to observe technical rules. Matters pertaining to jurisdiction are not among the questions which infants may waive or lose, either by the failure of their guardian ad litem, to raise the objection in the court below, or by any apparent mispleading by counsel in the cause. — Johnston v. Shaw, 31 Ala. 592.

¶2Partition, in the Probate Court, is a proceeding of purely statutory creation. When a proper petition is filed, it is the duty of the Probate Court to take jurisdiction, and “appoint a day for the hearing of the same, not less than thirty days from its filing.” The record in this case shows, that the day appointed for the hearing — the day on which the order of sale was granted — was only twenty-seven days from the day of filing the petition. This was an irregularity and error, which -was not waived by the failure of the guardian ad litem to object in the court below. — Bev. Code, § 3121. Nor is it waived here by a failure to sever in the assignment of error.

¶3Beversed and remanded.

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