Estate of Mollenkopf

This is an appeal from an order admitting a certain document to probate as the last will of deceased, and appointing the petitioner William Mollenkopf executor thereof without bond as specified therein.

The material facts on this appeal are substantially as follows: The petition for the probate of said alleged will came on for hearing on March 19, 1912, at ten o’clock A. M. At that time no written grounds of opposition had been filed. One of the attorneys of the contestant (Juliana R. de Long, mother of deceased) announced to the court that written grounds of opposition to the probate had been mailed in Los Angeles to the clerk of said court the day before, and were then due in San Francisco, and that a copy thereof had been served on petitioner’s attorney the day before. The court announced that “as some of the witnesses had come from Los Angeles, he would hear their testimony preliminarily and without prejudice to the rights of the contestant.” Witnesses were then called and examined on behalf of the petitioner, and gave testimony that the will was duly executed, and that deceased was of sound mind and not acting under duress, fraud, etc. The court then stated that it would…