Motion for Relief From Judgment Will Not Revive Dismissed Will Contest

In Re: Estate of Yeager, 11th Dist. Case Nos. 2014-T0107, 2014-T-0108, 2015-Ohio-2458. After the appellant filed a notice of dismissal as to their will-contest, which contained their intention to refile the complaint pursuant to R.C. § 2305.19 (Ohio's savings statute), they filed a Civ.R. 60(B) motion in an attempt to revive the will-contest proceeding. Because the Ohio savings statute does not allow a party to voluntarily dismiss a will contest and refile it, the appellate court determined that Civ.R. 60(B) was an improper vehicle to revive a will contest. While appellants argued that the trial court erred in failing to hold a hearing to consider the operative facts the voluntary dismissal was premised upon, the appellate court held that a voluntary dismissal pursuant to Civ.R. 41(A)(1) was not a final order operating to adjudicate the matter on the merits. As such, the court could not relieve the appellants or their legal representative for their mistake, inadvertences, surprise, or excusable neglect as to the voluntary dismissal. Because the will contest was barred and the appellants had no interest in the decedent's estate, the trial court also did not err in deciding that the appellants lacked standing to file exceptions to the estate's inventory.