PROBATE

The act or proce of proving a will. The proof before an ordinary, surrogate, register, or other duly authorized person that a document produced before him for official recognition and registration, and alleged to be the last will and testament of a certain deceased person, is such in reality. The copy of the will, made out in parchment or due form, under the seal of the ordinary or court of probate, and usually delivered to the executor or administrator of the deceased, together with a certificate of the will's having been proved, is also c,-ommonly called the "probate." In the canon law, "probate" consisted of probatio, the proof of the will by the executor, and approbat·io,. the approbation given by the ecclesiastical judge to the proof. 4 Reeve, Eng.,Law, 77. And see In re Spiegel halter's Will, 1 Penne will (Del.) 5, 39 Ail. 465; McCay v. Clayton, 119 Pa. 133, 12 At!. 860; Pettit v. Black, 13 Neb. 142, 12 N. W. 841; Reno v. McCully, 65 Iowa, 629, 22 N. W. 902;.A.ppeal of Dawley, 16 R. I. 694, 19.A.tl. 248. -Co:m:mon and solemn form of probate. In English law, there are two kinds of probate, namely, probate in common form, and probate in solemn form. Probate in common form is· granted in the registry, without any formal procedure in court, upon an ea: p.arte application made by the executor. Probate in solemn form is in the nature of a final decree pronounced in open court, all parties interested having been duly cited. The difference between the effect of probate in common form and probate in solemn form is that probate in common form is revocable, whereas probate in solemn form is irrevocable,_ as· against all persons who have been cited to see the proceedings, or who can be proved to have been privy to those proceedings, except in the case where a. will of subsequent date is discovered, in which case probate of an. earlier will, though granted in solemn form, would be revoked. Coote, Prob. Pr. (5th Ed.) 237-239; Mozley & Whitley. And see Luther v. Luther, 122 Ill. 558, 13 N. E. 166. The.term ls used, particularly tn Pennsylnnia, but not 1D,a strictly tec~cal 1euse, • [s. 952]