{
  "id": 2732344,
  "name": "In the Matter of the Estate of Louise Webster. - (State Bank and Trust Company, Appellee, vs. William W. Rice, Jr., Appellant.)",
  "name_abbreviation": "State Bank & Trust Co. v. Rice",
  "decision_date": "1960-12-01",
  "docket_number": "No. 35811",
  "first_page": "54",
  "last_page": "57",
  "citations": [
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      "type": "official",
      "cite": "21 Ill. 2d 54"
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  "court": {
    "name_abbreviation": "Ill.",
    "id": 8772,
    "name": "Illinois Supreme Court"
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  "jurisdiction": {
    "id": 29,
    "name_long": "Illinois",
    "name": "Ill."
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      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
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        2784572
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    {
      "cite": "14 Ill.2d 225",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill. 2d",
      "case_ids": [
        2768758
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      "case_paths": [
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    {
      "cite": "363 Ill. 607",
      "category": "reporters:state",
      "reporter": "Ill.",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T17:52:13.796326+00:00",
  "provenance": {
    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
    "source": "Harvard",
    "batch": "2018"
  },
  "casebody": {
    "judges": [],
    "parties": [
      "In the Matter of the Estate of Louise Webster. \u2014 (State Bank and Trust Company, Appellee, vs. William W. Rice, Jr., Appellant.)"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "Mr. Chief Justice Schaefer\ndelivered the opinion of court r\nThis is a direct appeal from an order of the probate court of Cook County which admitted to probate the last will and testament of Louise Webster. Her will provided for the payment of debts and taxes and bequeathed the residue of her estate to \u201cState Bank and Trust Company, as trustee\u201d under a trust agreement identified as \u201cTrust Number 2542.\u201d The respondent, William Rice, is one of her heirs-at-law. At the hearing upon the application to admit the will to probate he sought to question the witnesses who attested the execution of the will with respect to the contents of the trust agreement and the circumstances of its execution. The trial judge sustained objections to these questions upon the ground that the hearing was limited to proof of the execution of the will and to proof of fraud, forgery or compulsion in its execution. See Ill. Rev. Stat. 1959, chap. 3, par. 221.\nThe respondent justifies this court\u2019s jurisdiction upon direct appeal in the following terms : \u201cThis court\u2019s jurisdiction arises from the fact that this case involves the validity of section 43a of the Probate Act, passed upon by the trial court before entering a final order admitting a domestic will to probate.\u201d Section 43a of the Probate Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1959, chap. 3, par. 194a) provides that by a will signed and attested as provided in the statute, a testator may bequeath \u201creal and personal estate to a trustee of a trust which is evidenced by a written instrument in existence when the will is made and which is identified in the will, even though the trust is subject to amendment, modification, revocation or termination.\u201d In the respondent\u2019s argument in this court the validity of section 43a is challenged upon the grounds that it deprives the respondent of his \u201cnatural right of inheritance\u201d and denies him due process and equal protection of the law; that the statute confers a special privilege, immunity or franchise in violation of section 22 of article IV, and that it amends the previously existing law in violation of section 13 of article IV of the Illinois constitution.\nJurisdiction of this court upon direct appeal on constitutional grounds exists only when a constitutional question was raised and passed upon in the trial court. (Ryan v. City of Chicago, 363 Ill. 607; Leffler v. Browning, 14 Ill.2d 225; cf. City of Watseka v. Wilson, 11 Ill.2d 265.) The record in this case makes it clear that the trial judge did not pass upon the validity of section 43a. He held that the only matters open for consideration upon the application to admit the will to probate were those enumerated in section 69 of the Probate Act, (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1959, chap. 3, par. 221) and he made clear his view that other matters, relating to the completeness of the will or its construction, which might involve the validity of section 43a, were to be considered by another court in another proceeding. What was involved in this holding was a construction of section 69. The validity of that section, so construed, is not challenged upon this appeal. In the absence of such a challenge, the question of the correctness of the trial court\u2019s construction of the statute presents no constitutional issue.\nBecause the trial court did not pass upon the constitutional issue which is asserted as the basis of our jurisdiction, we do not have jurisdiction upon direct appeal. The cause is therefore transferred to the Appellate Court of Illinois, First District.\nCause transferred.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "Mr. Chief Justice Schaefer"
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "Sears, Streit & Tyler, of Chicago, (Barnabas F. Sears, Lloyd J. Tyler, Jr., and James N. Kosmond, of counsel,) for appellant.",
      "Shanesy, Hobbs & Ball, of Evanston,, and Thompson, Raymond, Mayer, Jenner & Bloomstein, of Chicago, (Prentice H. Marshall, and Robert E. Pfaff, of counsel,) for appellee."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "(No. 35811.\nIn the Matter of the Estate of Louise Webster. \u2014 (State Bank and Trust Company, Appellee, vs. William W. Rice, Jr., Appellant.)\nOpinion filed Dec. 1, 1960.\nRehearing denied Jan. 18, 1961.\nSears, Streit & Tyler, of Chicago, (Barnabas F. Sears, Lloyd J. Tyler, Jr., and James N. Kosmond, of counsel,) for appellant.\nShanesy, Hobbs & Ball, of Evanston,, and Thompson, Raymond, Mayer, Jenner & Bloomstein, of Chicago, (Prentice H. Marshall, and Robert E. Pfaff, of counsel,) for appellee."
  },
  "file_name": "0054-01",
  "first_page_order": 68,
  "last_page_order": 71
}