Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/330

 OTOBEK TF_,R, 1907, according to law, has exclusive jurisdiction of all te concerning the estate, pm-ticuhxly in those cases where it is in a course of adminlatrtion; and it does not occur to us that sepate proeeedin can properly be had in relation to the community, until after the settlement of the estate and the payment of the common debts, aml divi- sion of the residue of the scq6ets and omdn is to he made between the heirs of the decemed and the surviving spouse; and even then the affairs of the husbsaxl's estate, stlmini- tered nnder the control and supervision of the court of pro- bates, are to be inquired into and sometimm fully invmti- True it is that by article 1046 of the Porto Rican Code of Civil Procedure the parties interested in an estate which is unsettled and under the dominion of the proper court given power to termin&re the estate by a voluntary agreement between them, and test such may Esve been the effect of the agreement between the parties here in question ff the sme valid. But as the bill eEsrged and the relief which it asked was bezed upon the conception test the agreement was void, it follows test the relief which the bill sought could' only have proceeded upon the hypothesis test the estate had not been closed, and wm yet subject to be administered in the proper court. And that this wse the theory of the bill is shown by the prayer test the court appoint a master to liquidsto and settle the estates. Coming to consider the suSject from the point of view of the &verments as to the nullity of the agreement sagl the frsl- ulent simulation of the sales, it is clear thet the relief sought in this regard was merely ancillary to the prayer for the liqui- dation and settlement of the estates. As we take judie'ml notice of the fact test the distinctions between law and equity in s technical sense do not obtn in the local law of Porto Rico, and as under test law & court chm-ged With the admin- istration of an estate is one of general as well as probate juris- diction and has full power over all personal and res] actions

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