Frost National Bank, Former Executor of the Estate of Elena Suess Kenedy, Deceased, and Frost National Bank And…

Summary

The Texas Supreme Court held that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction to render summary judgment on Fernandez's bill of review attacking the 1949 Humble Oil will-construction judgment: her good-faith pleadings conferred standing, and because a bill of review is a direct attack, only the court that rendered the underlying judgment could resolve all issues bearing on the attack, including heirship. The Probate Code does not authorize a probate court to determine heirship for a testate decedent whose estate was fully administered and closed decades earlier, so abatement in favor of the probate court's earlier-filed heirship applications was unwarranted. The Court further held that the discovery rule does not apply to inheritance or heirship claims by non-marital children or to bill of review claims to set aside probate judgments, rendering Fernandez's claims barred by the four-year residual limitations period, and it rendered judgment reinstating the district court's summary judgment. It affirmed the portion of the court of appeals' judgment reversing the district court's anti-suit injunction, which was no longer needed once the probate court's lack of jurisdiction was established.