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ALABAMA COURT OF CIVI L APPEAL S

SPECIAL TERM, 2009

2071234

Ralph Eustace and Martha Haislip
V .


Sandra Browning, as personal representative

of the estat e of Eula Cleo Eustace Styles, deceased

Appeal from Madison Circuit Court
(CV-05-2164)

On Application for Rehearing

MOORE, Judge.

This court's opinion of April 17, 2009, is withdrawn, and

the following is substituted therefor.

Ralph Eustace and Martha Haislip appeal from a judgment
entered by the Madison Circuit Court. We affirm the judgment
in part and dismiss the appeal in part.

Facts and Procedural History

Eula Cleo Eustace Styles ("the decedent") died on
September 11, 2004. Approximately three months before she
died, the decedent had moved from her home in Jackson County
to Madison County to live with her niece, Sandra Browning.

On September 20, 2004, Ralph Eustace, the decedent's
brother, filed a petition for letters of administration in the
Jackson Probate Court; the Jackson Probate Court granted his
request on September 23, 2004. On February 28, 2005, Sandra
Browning filed in the Madison Probate Court a petition to
probate the will of the decedent ("the will") and requesting
that the Madison Probate Court grant letters testamentary to
her. Also on February 28, 2005, Browning filed in the Jackson
Probate Court a verified petition to revoke the letters of
administration that had been previously granted to Eustace.
The Jackson Probate Court revoked Eustace's letters of
administration on March 21, 2005. Meanwhile, Eustace
petitioned the Jackson Circuit Court for removal of the

proceedings in the Jackson Probate Court, and the Jackson
Circuit Court entered an order removing the proceedings from
the Jackson Probate Court to the circuit court on March 23,
2005.

On March 24, 2005, Eustace filed in the Jackson Circuit
Court a motion to consolidate the proceedings in the Madison
Probate Court with the proceedings in the Jackson Circuit
Court; the Jackson Circuit Court granted that motion and noted
that Eustace would "continue as administrator." On April 27,
2005, the Madison Probate Court admitted the will to probate
and granted letters testamentary to Browning. On May 10,
2005, Browning filed in the Jackson Circuit Court a motion
seeking to set aside the consolidation order and to dismiss
the case; that motion was denied.

On June 14, 2005, Eustace, individually and as
administrator of the decedent's estate, and Martha Haislip,
the decedent's sister and an heir at law of the decedent,
filed an "amended complaint" in the Jackson Circuit Court
contesting the will based on the grounds of incapacity and
undue influence, alleging that the will had been filed in the
wrong venue, and alleging various tort claims based on actions

that Browning had allegedly taken unrelated to the procurement
of the will. On July 5, 2005, Browning filed in the Jackson
Circuit Court another motion to revoke Eustace's letters of
administration, and, on July 6, 2005, Browning filed a motion
to dismiss the amended complaint. On August 11, 2005,
Browning filed a petition requesting that the Alabama Supreme
Court issue a writ of mandamus to the Jackson Circuit Court;
that petition was denied on September 5, 2005.^

On October 25, 2005, Browning filed in the Madison
Circuit Court a petition for removal of the proceedings from
the Madison Probate Court to the circuit court, and, on
October 28, 2005, the Madison Circuit Court ordered that those
proceedings be removed. On April 12, 2006, Browning filed a
motion requesting that the Madison Circuit Court enter a
judgment declaring that the decedent had left a will, that the
decedent had been a resident of Madison County at the time of
her death, that Browning had complied with Alabama law in
probating the will in Madison County, and that Browning is the
personal representative of the decedent's estate. Browning

^The petition is not in the record on appeal, and it is
unclear what the petition was based upon.

attached several exhibits to that motion. On June 6, 2006,
Browning filed a motion for a summary judgment in the Madison
Circuit Court, attaching thereto her motion requesting a
declaratory judgment and the exhibits that had been attached
to that motion. Eustace and Haislip filed a response to the
summary-judgment motion on October 30, 2006. On November 2,
2006, the Madison Circuit Court held a hearing on Browning's
summary-judgment motion.

On November 9, 2006, Eustace and Haislip filed a motion
requesting that the Madison Circuit Court transfer the
proceedings pending in that court to the Jackson Circuit
Court. On November 21, 2006, Browning filed in the Jackson
Circuit Court a motion to dismiss or, alternatively, to
transfer the action. On November 14, 2006, the Madison
Circuit Court denied Eustace and Haislip's motion to transfer.

On November 15, 2006, the Madison Circuit Court entered
an order granting Browning's motion for a summary judgment,
finding that the decedent had left a will, which had been duly
admitted to probate by the Madison Probate Court; that
Browning had complied with Alabama law in submitting the will
to probate in the Madison Probate Court; that letters

testamentary had been issued to Browning on April 27, 2005;
that Browning is the legitimate personal representative of the
estate of the decedent; that Eustace's letters of
administration had been properly revoked by the Jackson
Probate Court; that no heir or beneficiary of the decedent's
estate had filed a contest of the will in either the Madison
Probate Court or the Madison Circuit Court; and that the
Jackson Circuit Court's order purporting to consolidate the
Madison County proceedings with the Jackson County proceedings
was void.

On February 14, 2008, the Jackson Circuit Court entered
an order severing the tort claims asserted in Eustace and
Haislip's amended complaint from those claims related to the
will ("the will contest); the will contest was transferred to
the Madison Circuit Court. On April 18, 2008, Browning filed
in the Madison Circuit Court a motion to dismiss the will
contest. On August 5, 2008, the Madison Circuit Court granted
the motion to dismiss the will contest and made that order
final, pursuant to Rule 54(b), Ala. R. Civ. P. Eustace and
Haislip filed their notice of appeal to the Alabama Supreme

Court on September 16, 2008; that court transferred the appeal
to this court, pursuant to Ala. Code 1975,

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