Section 18.5 Jurisdiction in General

• Library: Estate Administration 2014 Supp

1. (§18.5) Jurisdiction in General

Effective January 2, 1979, the General Assembly revised § 472.020, now RSMo 2000, of Missouri’s Probate Code, Chapters 472–475, RSMo, to elaborate on the jurisdiction of the probate division of the circuit court. This provision tracks much, though not all, of the language of the former constitutional provisions pertaining to the former probate courts. It provides that the probate division of the circuit court:

may hear and determine all matters pertaining to probate business, to granting letters testamentary and of administration [among other things,] including jurisdiction of the construction of wills as an incident to the administration of estates [and] . . . of the administration of testamentary and inter vivos trusts, . . . and of such other probate business as may be prescribed by law.

Id.

The probate division of a circuit court can hear trust construction matters in the person of a circuit judge sitting as a court of general equitable jurisdiction under § 15 of Article V of the Missouri Constitution or in the person of an associate circuit judge by reason of trust construction being incident to trust administration or “other probate matters” or by reason of assignment of the matter from the presiding judge of the circuit court under the authority of § 478.240.2, RSMo 2000. See also City of Kansas...