West Virginia Code
Article 5. Production, Probate and Record of Wills
§41-5-10. Ex Parte Procedure to Probate; Appeal

At, or at any time after, the production of a will, any person may move the county court having jurisdiction, or the clerk thereof in the vacation of the court, for the probate of such will, and the court or the clerk thereof, as the case may be, may, without notice to any party, proceed to hear and determine the motion and admit the will to probate, or reject the same. The probate of, or refusal to probate, any will, so made by the clerk, shall be reported by him to the court at its next regular session, and, if no objection be made thereto, and none appear to the court, the court shall confirm the same. If any person entitled to contest the probate of a will shall appear before the clerk of the court before a decision is made by him admitting or refusing to admit the will to probate, or before the county court at any time before it has made an order confirming the action of the clerk in admitting or refusing to admit such will to probate, or before such court in any ex parte proceeding to probate a will made in the court in the first instance before it has made an order admitting or refusing to admit the will to probate, and file a notice of contest of the probate of the will, stating distinctly the several grounds of objection, process on such notice shall be issued and the proceeding thereafter shall be heard before the county court only, and in all respects in the same manner as if the will had been offered for probate in solemn form; and any judgment entered by the county court on such proceeding shall have the same effect, and an appeal shall lie therefrom, as if the original proceeding to probate the will had been made in solemn form: Provided, That the only notice to the parties interested or process against them required in such case shall be upon the notice of contest. In all ex parte proceedings in which there is no contest, the action of the clerk in admitting the will to probate, when confirmed by the court, shall have the same effect in all respects as if the will had been admitted to probate and record by the county court in the first instance.

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