Horan

INTRODUCTION

Nearly two years after the probate court approved their settlement of a will contest and dismissed with prejudice their petitions claiming that approximately $136,000 was part of the decedent’s estate, respondents Robert Douglas Roan and Janet True objected to the co-administrators’ accounting for failure to include that $136,000 in the estate’s residue. Co-administrator Nancy Horan appeals from the trial court’s judgment ordering her to return the $136,000 to the estate. We conclude that respondents are barred by the doctrine of res judicata from relitigating whether that money was part of the *1529 decedent’s estate. Thus, we agree with appellant that the trial court had no jurisdiction to reopen the final judgment of the probate court approving the settlement for the purpose of recharacterizing the $136,000 as part of the estate. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

1. The decedent

Patricia Margaret Redfield was admitted to the hospital on February 24, 2004, to undergo surgery. She died on March 17, 2004. Decedent was unmarried but was survived by three children, respondents Roan and True, from whom she was estranged…