(a) Where a foreign will has not been probated in another jurisdiction, any person interested may apply for its probate before the probate court of the county in this state in which the real estate or any part of the real estate is located.
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Terms Used In Tennessee Code 32-5-110

  • Code: includes the Tennessee Code and all amendments and revisions to the code and all additions and supplements to the code. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Common law: The legal system that originated in England and is now in use in the United States. It is based on judicial decisions rather than legislative action.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Interrogatories: Written questions asked by one party of an opposing party, who must answer them in writing under oath; a discovery device in a lawsuit.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Lands: includes lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein, equitable as well as legal. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Person: includes a corporation, firm, company or association. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • Probate court: means the court having jurisdiction over the administration of the estates of decedents. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Record: means information that is inscribed on a tangible medium or that is stored in an electronic or other medium and is retrievable in a perceivable form. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • State: when applied to the different parts of the United States, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories of the United States. See Tennessee Code 1-3-105
  • Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
(b) To that end the interested person shall present a petition to the probate court, setting forth the death of the foreign testator, the decedent‘s ownership of lands in the county, and the fact of the decedent’s testacy, whereupon the court shall authorize the taking of such proof as may be necessary to prove the will in accordance with the laws of this state.
(c)

(1) Depositions may be taken either upon interrogatories filed in the court for ten (10) days, or by oral examination at a time and place designated by the court.
(2) No notice shall be required of the taking of the depositions, save any resulting from the making of the order for the depositions by the court.
(3) When the depositions are taken by oral examination, the time that elapses between the making of the order for the depositions and the taking of the depositions shall not be less than the time prescribed for notice for taking depositions under the general laws.
(d) Should it not be possible to exhibit to the depositions and produce before the probate court the original will, a copy of the will may be so used, the necessary witnesses proving that it is a true copy of the original.
(e) On being admitted to probate, the probate shall have the same force and effect as to real estate as the probate in this state of wills of residents of this state have as to lands devised by them, but nothing in this section is to prevent the proving of foreign wills as at common law and without probate.
(f) The will shall, as to real estate, be to the same extent and in the same manner as domestic wills subject to contest in the state, and certified copies of the record in the probate court shall be available as evidence as are copies of domestic wills and probate of domestic wills; provided, however, that nothing in this section shall apply to wills dated more than fifty-five (55) years prior to the enactment of this Code.
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