In re Estate of Crooks

Susan Crooks died a resident of San Francisco, April 28, 1894, testate, and leaving a large estate. The will was probated, the executors qualified, and administration proceeded until the twenty-eighth day of November, 1897, when a petition was filed showing that the estate was ready for distribution. Notice was given, and April 1, 1898, the matter came on for hearing.

At the hearing the appellants, Wemple and Arnold, appeared and offered in evidence a document which purported to be a mortgage executed by Eobert Lee Crooks, one of the devisees mentioned in the will of the testator, and also one of her heirs-at-law, upon all the right, title, and interest of the mortgagor of, in, and to all the real estate in the two inventories in the estate of Matthexv Crooks, and all the real estate in the inventory in the estate of Susan Crooks, and all the other real estate in which Eobert Lee Crooks may have any interest as heir at law of Matthew Crooks or Susan Crooks, to secure the payment of a certain promissory note for the sum of six thousand dollars and interest. The note was then past due. Wemple and Arnold filed no pleading or other appearance in writing. The attorney simply appeared…