What a Connecticut Probate Court may decide: the general powers of Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-98

Every state answers the same first question in an estate or trust dispute: which court hears it? In Connecticut the answer for the Probate Court starts with Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-98, which lists what a Probate Court may do, and continues in § 45a-98a, which conditions three items on that list. Both sections follow in full as they read in the 2025 edition of the General Statutes, and the reading comes after them.

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-98

Section 45a-98. (Formerly Sec. 45-4). - General powers.

(a) Probate Courts in their respective districts shall have the power to (1) grant administration of intestate estates of persons who have died domiciled in their districts and of intestate estates of persons not domiciled in this state which may be granted as provided by section 45a-303; (2) admit wills to probate of persons who have died domiciled in their districts or of nondomiciliaries whose wills may be proved in their districts as provided in section 45a-287; (3) except as provided in section 45a-98a or as limited by an applicable statute of limitations, determine title or rights of possession and use in and to any real, tangible or intangible property that constitutes, or may constitute, all or part of any trust, any decedent's estate, or any estate under control of a guardian or conservator, including the rights and obligations of any beneficiary of the trust or estate and including the rights and obligations of any joint tenant with respect to survivorship property; (4) except as provided in section 45a-98a, determine the validity or construe the meaning and effect of (A) any will or trust agreement if a construction is required in connection with the administration or distribution of a trust or estate; or (B) a power of attorney pursuant to section 1-350o; (5) except as provided in section 45a-98a, apply the doctrine of cy pres or approximation; (6) to the extent provided for in section 45a-175, call executors, administrators, trustees, guardians, conservators, and agents acting under powers of attorney created in accordance with sections 1-350 to 1-353b, inclusive, to account concerning the estates entrusted to their charge or for other relief as provided in sections 1-350 to 1-353b, inclusive; and (7) make any lawful orders or decrees to carry into effect the power and jurisdiction conferred upon the Probate Courts by the laws of this state.

(b) The jurisdiction of Probate Courts to determine title or rights or to construe instruments or to apply the doctrine of cy pres or approximation pursuant to subsection (a) of this section is concurrent with the jurisdiction of the Superior Court and does not affect the power of the Superior Court as a court of general jurisdiction.

(1949 Rev., S. 6813; P.A. 80-410, S. 1; 80-476, S. 2; P.A. 93-279, S. 6; P.A. 98-219, S. 4; P.A. 15-240, S. 46; P.A. 16-40, S. 9; 16-193, S. 19; P.A. 18-45, S. 16; P.A. 19-137, S. 110.)

Conn. Gen. Stat. § 45a-98a

Section 45a-98a. Jurisdiction of Probate Court to determine title or rights or to construe instruments. Limitations. Affidavit of intent to claim jury trial, effect on Probate Court proceedings.

(a) The Probate Court shall have jurisdiction under subdivision (3), (4) or (5) of subsection (a) of section 45a-98 only if (1) the matter in dispute is not pending in another court of competent jurisdiction and (2) the Probate Court does not decline jurisdiction. Before the initial hearing on the merits of a matter in dispute in which jurisdiction is based on subdivision (3), (4) or (5) of subsection (a) of section 45a-98, the Probate Court may, on its own motion, decline to take jurisdiction of the matter in dispute. Before the initial hearing on the merits of such a matter, any interested person may file an affidavit that such person is entitled and intends under section 52-215 to claim a trial of the matter by jury. In that case, the Probate Court shall allow the person filing the affidavit a period of sixty days within which to bring an appropriate civil action in the Superior Court to resolve the matter in dispute. If such an action is brought in the Superior Court, the matter, after determination by the Superior Court, shall be returned to the Probate Court for completion of the Probate Court proceedings.

(b) If a party fails to file an affidavit of intent to claim a jury trial prior to the initial hearing in the Probate Court on the merits, or having filed such an affidavit, fails to bring an action in the Superior Court within the sixty-day period allowed by the Probate Court, the party shall be deemed to have consented to a hearing on the matter in the Probate Court and to have waived any right under section 52-215 or other applicable law to a trial by jury.

(P.A. 93-279, S. 7; P.A. 98-219, S. 5.)

P.A. 98-219 amended Subsec. (a) by adding references to Sec. 45a-98(a)(5).

Reading the list

The seven powers in § 45a-98(a) fall into three groups.

The first two are the Probate Court's original business: granting administration of intestate estates and admitting wills to probate. Both are tied to the district, and both have a nondomiciliary branch that the section hands to other statutes, § 45a-303 for administration and § 45a-287 for wills.

Powers (3), (4) and (5) are the adjudicative powers, and they are the reason the section is worth reading closely. Under (3) the court may determine title or rights of possession and use in property that "constitutes, or may constitute" part of a trust, a decedent's estate, or a guardianship or conservatorship estate, and the text extends that to the rights and obligations of a beneficiary and of a joint tenant with respect to survivorship property. Under (4) it may determine the validity of, or construe, a will or trust agreement, but only "if a construction is required in connection with the administration or distribution of a trust or estate," and, since the reference to § 1-350o, a power of attorney. Under (5) it may apply cy pres or approximation. Subsection (b) then says that all three are concurrent with the Superior Court and take nothing from it.

Power (6), to call fiduciaries and agents to account, is limited "to the extent provided for in section 45a-175," so the accounting statute, not this one, governs who can be called and when. Power (7) is the catch-all: orders and decrees to carry the court's jurisdiction into effect.

The gate in § 45a-98a

The three adjudicative powers exist only on the conditions of § 45a-98a(a), and the conditions are worth stating in order because each has a clock attached to the initial hearing on the merits.

First, the matter in dispute must not be pending in another court of competent jurisdiction. A title or construction question already before the Superior Court stays there.

Second, the Probate Court must not decline jurisdiction. It may decline on its own motion, but only before the initial hearing on the merits.

Third, any interested person may, again before the initial hearing on the merits, file an affidavit that the person is entitled to and intends to claim a jury trial under § 52-215. The filing does not move the case by itself. It obliges the Probate Court to allow sixty days for the person to bring a civil action in the Superior Court; if the action is brought, the Superior Court decides the matter and returns it to the Probate Court to finish the proceeding.

Subsection (b) supplies the consequence of missing either step. A party who files no affidavit before the initial hearing on the merits, or who files one and then lets the sixty days pass without suing, "shall be deemed to have consented to a hearing on the matter in the Probate Court" and to have waived the jury right.

What follows for the practitioner

Three things follow from the text alone.

A title, construction or cy pres dispute can be brought in either court, and the choice belongs first to whoever files. The Probate Court's jurisdiction over those questions is concurrent, not exclusive, and it yields to a matter already pending elsewhere.

The decision point is the initial hearing on the merits in the Probate Court. Everything that can change the forum, the court's own declination and a party's jury affidavit, has to happen before it. After it, § 45a-98a(b) treats silence as consent.

The sixty days are not a period to think about it. A party who wants a jury has to file the affidavit and then actually commence the Superior Court action within the period the Probate Court allows; the affidavit alone preserves nothing.

Two further limits are in § 45a-98(a) itself rather than in § 45a-98a: power (3) is "limited by an applicable statute of limitations," and power (4) is available only where a construction is required for administration or distribution.

This entry states the sections as they read in the 2025 edition of the General Statutes; check the current text on the General Assembly's site before relying on it.