Hodges v. Hodges, 2090610 (ala.civ.app. 5-6-2011)

PITTMAN, Judge.

This appeal concerns the proper jurisdiction, as between a circuit court and a probate court, of a will contest that is initiated in the probate court, along with a contemporaneous request to transfer the contest to the circuit court, after a petition to admit the will to probate has been filed in the probate court (but before the probate court has acted upon the merits of the petition). We conclude that, under such circumstances, a circuit court, not a probate court, has exclusive jurisdiction to consider such a contest; therefore, we reverse the judgment of the Randolph…