Surrogate Edward McCarty III
The guardian ad litem (GAL) for missing and unknown persons, in this petition to probate decedent Maynard’s will, objected to the court’s jurisdiction. The court ordered service by publication in a defunct publication and the citation was then published in a successor paper that had distribution near decedent’s last known residence. The GAL claimed as the publication did not precisely adhere to the court’s order of service by publication, the court lacked jurisdiction, and the citation must be published again. The court opined if publication in a paper other than the court ordered one constituted a technical and curable defect. It noted the paper in which the publication occurred served a neighboring community to the one in which decedent last resided. As such, the court concluded that while the newspaper in which the citation was published was not the one named in the original court order, the successor newspaper to the defunct paper, and the court was satisfied that the successor newspaper could have been initially designated by the court for publication. Hence, the publication in the successor paper was not a jurisdictional defect, but a mere irregularity, granting the court jurisdiction over the missing and unknown parties.
