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Grossman Law Firm is your Riverside-based news source for everything related to California estate planning and succession, will contests, and trust litigation.

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Trust Litigation & Probate Litigation

• Dodger owners' divorce trial could have been a probate battle
  Sep 02, 2010

  The high profile battle between Frank and Jamie McCourt for ownership of the Dodgers could easily have been a probate battle.  Had either one of them died then the decedent's children would have been in probate court asserting their parent owned the team as their separate property or they owned it jointly as community property.  Think that's far fetched?  Think again.  The number of divorces and remarriages during the last 30 years has lead to a large number of blended families.
  
  Often times the couple hasn't paid close attention to how they have taken, or changed, title to the property they own.  When that happens hard feelings can arise when one of the spouses dies.  So often the survivor claims it was community property so half of it is theirs while the children of the decedent claim it was their parent's separate property so the survivor gets nothing.
  
  Couples with larger estates may have signed deeds changing the character of their real estate or beneficiary designations affecting IRAs and other deferred compensation plans.  Sorting it out after death is just as complicated as doing divorce while they are both alive.

• Probate litigation no stranger to gay couples
  Apr 25, 2010

  This case from the Milwaukee area is a typical case of one gay partner's parents being unhappy with his will and challenging it.  The decedent ran a successful design company with his life partner.  His will left everything his partner when he died. 
  
  Unfortunately, his death came unexpectedly in an airplane crash.  For reasons not stated in the article, his parents did not accept his testimonial instruction and filed a will contest.  They claimed their son would care for them for the rest of their lives even though his will left everything to his partner.  They lost and have taken an appeal.
  
  The brief facts of the case illustrate the power of a will and the difficulty of overcoming it.  The parents appear to be asserting their son made oral promises that don't appear in his will.  If that is their entire claim it would not win in a California probate court.

• Church battles parishioner over inheritance
  Aug 30, 2009

  A church and its parishioners are in a battle over an inheritance from a deceased parishioner.  The local archdiocese wants to demolish the church structure and still receive the inheritance.  Local parishioners argue the money left to the church is more than enough to repair the church and allow it to re-open.  The case highlights the importance of expressing testamentary intentions.

• Heiress' inability to recognize son supports fraud charge
  Aug 27, 2009

  The criminal case against heiress Brook Astor's son was supported by the testimony of her long time chaffeur that the heiress didn't recognize her son on a number of occassions during the last few years of her life.  The prosecution introduced this testimony to support their fraud claim.
  
  In California will contest and trust litigation cases, evidence a parent does not recognize their child is often introduced to prove lack of capacity or undue influence.  California law presumes competence and part of that is recognizing your family.  The law assumes most people will leave their money and property to their children barring a child being estranged or another good reason for doing otherwise.  Failing to recognize your own son or daughter often explains why all the property was left to just one son or daughter or someone who is not part of the family.

• Conflicting wills leads to charge of undue influence
  Jun 08, 2009

  Cape Cod artist Mary Kass left two wills created years apart.  The conflict in the terms of the wills lead to beneficiaries of the first will claiming undue influence in the creation of the second will. 
  
  Ms. Kass accumulated tens of millions of dollars worth of art.  She originally left a substantial portion of her estate to her niece and nephew through her will.  A later will left most of her estate to the National Gallery of Art and put her caregiver in charge of her estate along with a major brokerage house.  Her niece and nephew claim the second will was the product of the caregiver's undue influence.  No doubt the caregiver is in a position to earn large fees helping to probate this will.

• Changes to will leads to criminal elder abuse case
  Jun 05, 2009

  Heiress Brooke Astor's attorney was called to testify in a criminal elder abuse case that sprang from multiple changes to her will when she was 101.  Astor's attorney was called as a prosecution witness but was questioned, at times, as though he were a hostile witness.  The prosecution contends he exhibited loyalty to both Mrs. Astor and her son.
  
  This can be a real source of tension for families with aging parents who are not as sharp or spry as they used to be.  A well intentioned attorney can come to rely on communications from an adult child and not realize the requests being made are the child's requests, not his or her client's request.  Such divided loyalties can result in charges of undue influence and lack of capacity if there is a will contest.  If the adult child "helping" his or her parent also received any property while the parent was alive then financial elder abuse charges, criminal or civil, can result.
  
  In this case, many millions of dollars were at stake which is why, I suspect, a criminal case was filed.  Had this case involved a family with a more modest estate then the other children would probably have had to bring a civil case if they were going to get the inheritance intended for them.

• Helmsley's pet trust was poorly drafted
  Mar 18, 2009

  Billionaire Leona Helmsley created a trust that she thought would leave all her money in trust to be used solely for the care and welfare of her dogs.  Helmsley inexplicably drafted a "mission statement" for her trust and then failed to include any of it in the trust itself.  The mission statement provided instructions to her trustees on how her money should be used after her death.
  
  This fundamental omission allowed her trustee to file a motion with New York's version of probate court asking the court to allow them to use the trust funds for charitable purposes since the trust itself did not direct them how to use the trust assets.  The judge ruled the trustees may, in their sole discretion, determine for what charitable purposes the funds can be used.

• Trustee steals from trust he administered for his daughter
  Mar 01, 2009

  This story from Philadelphia recounts how a state senator received a $1,000,000 gift from his friend.  It just so happens that gift came from the friend taking the money from his daughter's trust.  Of course, as trustee he had no right to take the money from the trust and make a gift of it.
  
  Trustees improperly taking money from a trust is not uncommon.  Beneficiaries of a trust who have been ripped off can sue the trustee in probate court if they are going to recover what is rightfully theirs.  Usually this is done by filing a petition in probate court seeking to surcharge the trustee.

• Lawsuits fly against probate estate in attempt to recover assets
  Feb 19, 2009

  This story illustrates one of the more unpleasant tasks that falls to executors and administrators, defending the probate estate from lawsuits.  Had this story been from California it's possible the probate estate would do better than it appears to be doing in this case.  Under California probate law a creditor has to file a claim with the estate before suing the estate.  The creditor can not sue a California probate estate without taking this step.  If the probate estate denies the claim or fails to act on it then the creditor can sue the estate.  If the creditor sues the probate estate without filing a creditor's claim then the estate will have a perfect defense to the lawsuit.

• Heir grievances lead to estate litigation
  Feb 17, 2009

  Gifts made while your loved one is alive can lead to probate litigation after they have died.  This story from Kansas City illustrates a common scenario seen so often in California probate court and litigated by California probate lawyers.  Here, a blended family had a harmonious relationship while both the husband and wife were alive.  When the husband died his children took items from the house they claimed were family heirlooms and some money from a joint bank account.  After the wife died, and her will was admitted to probate, litigation ensued to determine what each person named in the will was supposed to receive.
  
  Had this case been in California, a good California probate attorney would have recognized the property taken from the wife would give the executor a reason to file a financial elder abuse lawsuit or an "850 petition" (which is petition in a California probate court claiming someone is holding property that really belongs to the probate estate.)  Financial elder abuse lawsuits can lead to the defendant having to repay the amount they took along with attorney's fees and costs.  An 850 petition can lead to the defendant having to pay double damages.