Ex Parte Denise Scott Ricks. (in Re Adam Dorough, Rufus Dorough, James Dorough, Patrick Dorough, and Robert Dorough…

Summary

The court reversed the Court of Civil Appeals and remanded, holding that the probate court retained jurisdiction to admit the will because the contestants had not made a present written demand for transfer, and that the contestants waived objections to the trial procedure and the notary seal by failing to raise them at the proper time. The court further held that probate proceedings prima facie sustain the will's validity, creating a rebuttable presumption affecting the burden of producing evidence, and that the circuit court properly considered testimony that the will had been notarized. Justice Shaw, dissenting, would have treated the probate judgment as having no probative value and objected to deciding issues outside the certiorari grant; Justice Murdock, concurring in the result, agreed that the record supported the circuit court's judgment on narrower grounds.