Carter Ex Rel. Estate of Haley v. Campbell, 427 S.W.3d 503 (Tex. App.—Austin 2014, no pet.).
Siblings agreed to a family settlement dividing
their mother’s estate in approximately equal shares rather than under
the mother’s will which provided for her children to receive unequal
shares. The siblings also agreed for one of them to
serve as the independent executor. Several years
later, one of the other siblings requested an accounting and
distribution. The executor sibling objected claiming
that the family settlement agreement deprived the court of jurisdiction.
The trial court disagreed and the executor appealed.
The appellate court affirmed stating that “the mere
existence of a family settlement agreement does not automatically take
an estate entirely outside of probate court jurisdiction.”
Id. at 506. The court explained that it
had jurisdiction because the mother’s estate was still under
administration by the independent executor. The
family settlement agreement merely altered the distribution of the
mother’s estate; there was no agreement to waive any right to seek
judicial remedies.
Moral: A family settlement agreement does not deprive a court
of jurisdiction over the estate.