Daughter/Executrix Who Disputed Terms of Mother’s Will is Denied Commissions
Linda Hall was the executrix of her mother’s estate. Hall had initially had a 2005 will admitted to probate.
When Hall’s sister, Carol Polak-Reid (“Reid”) filed a complaint alleging that their mother had executed another will in 2011, Hall represented that she had attempted to have the 2011 will admitted, but the surrogate had rejected the 2011 will because it contained “scratch-outs.” The trial court set aside probate of the 2005 will and admitted the 2011 will to probate, although Hall remained the executrix. The trial judge denied Reid’s request for an accounting as premature, and denied Reid’s request to remove Hall as executrix, finding insufficient evidence to support the request.
Reid later filed a motion seeking information regarding the decedent’s property in Englewood, and seeking distribution of personal property, an inventory of the decedent’s assets, counsel fees, and a plenary hearing regarding Hall’s removal as executrix. The trial court awarded Reid counsel fees from the estate and ordered Hall to provide an inventory of assets, but denied Reid’s other requests.
Thereafter, the decedent’s Englewood property was sold.
A trial was conducted, which resulted in the trial judge making the following findings. Prior to her death, the decedent had been living with Hall and paying Hall $1,000/month in rent. The decedent had obtained a loan for $79,000, secured by a mortgage on the Englewood property. The decedent had retained $10,000 of that loan. Contrary to Hall’s denial, the trial judge found Hall had borrowed the remaining $69,000 to renovate her home. The court found that the decedent’s payment of the $922 monthly mortgage was in lieu of her paying rent to Hall. The judge also found that, according to the decedent’s will, Hall was to be responsible for repaying that loan at the time of sale of the Englewood property. The trial judge found that the testimony presented at trial demonstrated that the decedent had intended to have Hall repay that loan.
Although the trial court ordered that the loan balance was to be repaid by Hall, he credited Hall for the $922/month mortgage payments, since they were in lieu of rent. He entered judgment against Hall for the balance of the loan, to be paid to the estate.
The trial judge also ordered that, because there were no funds remaining to be distributed pursuant to the residuary clause, Hall would not be paid an executor’s commission.
On appeal, Hall first claimed that, contrary to the provision of the will, Hall had never received the loan proceeds and never signed any documents obligating herself to repay the mortgage. The Appellate Division rejected these arguments.
The Appellate Division found that the evidence at trial had established that Hall had received the loan proceeds and that the decedent had intended Hall to repay her estate for the loan balance remaining at her death.
Hall’s second argument on appeal was that the trial judge’s refusal to award her an executor’s commission was erroneous, because she had not been found to have engaged in any misconduct. The Appellate Division rejected this argument. It found that Hall’s assertions regarding the loan were not credible, and that,
the record shows that Hall was not seeking to effectuate [the decedent’s] intentions. Rather, Hall was endeavoring to avoid her responsibility for the loan in direct contravention of her mother’s expressed intentions in the will.
The Appellate Division found that, because the matter did not involve a legitimate dispute regarding the terms of the will, and because there were insufficient estate assets to pay residuary bequests and an executor’s commission would reduce amounts received by the other beneficiaries, the judge did not abuse his discretion in refusing an executor’s commission to Hall.
The case is annexed here – Estate of Polak
For additional information concerning estate planning and administration, visit: https://vanarellilaw.com/estate-planning-administration/
Categories
- Affordable Care Act
- Alzheimer's Disease
- Arbitration
- Attorney Ethics
- Attorneys Fees
- Beneficiary Designations
- Blog Roundup and Highlights
- Blogs and Blogging
- Care Facilities
- Caregivers
- Cemetery
- Collaborative Family Law
- Conservatorships
- Consumer Fraud
- Contempt
- Contracts
- Defamation
- Developmental Disabilities
- Discovery
- Discrimination Laws
- Doctrine of Probable Intent
- Domestic Violence
- Elder Abuse
- Elder Law
- Elective Share
- End-of-Life Decisions
- Estate Administration
- Estate Litigation
- Estate Planning
- Events
- Family Law
- Fiduciary
- Financial Exploitation of the Elderly
- Funeral
- Future of the Legal Profession
- Geriatric Care Managers
- Governmental or Public Benefit Programs
- Guardianship
- Health Issues
- Housing for the Elderly and Disabled
- In Remembrance
- Insolvent Estates
- Institutional Liens
- Insurance
- Interesting New Cases
- Intestacy
- Law Firm News
- Law Firm Videos
- Law Practice Management / Development
- Lawyers and Lawyering
- Legal Capacity or Competancy
- Legal Malpractice
- Legal Rights of the Disabled
- Liens
- Litigation
- Mediation
- Medicaid Appeals
- Medicaid Applications
- Medicaid Planning
- Annuities
- Care Contracts
- Divorce
- Estate Recovery
- Family Part Non-Dissolution Support Orders
- Gifts
- Life Estates
- Loan repayments
- MMMNA
- Promissory Notes
- Qualified Income Trusts
- Spousal Refusal
- Transfers For Reasons Other Than To Qualify For Medicaid
- Transfers to "Caregiver" Child(ren)
- Transfers to Disabled Adult Children
- Trusts
- Undue Hardship Provision
- Multiple-Party Deposit Account Act
- New Cases
- New Laws
- News Briefs
- Newsletters
- Non-Probate Assets
- Nursing Facility Litigation
- Personal Achievements and Awards
- Personal Injury Lawsuits
- Probate
- Punitive Damages
- Reconsideration
- Retirement Benefits
- Reverse Mortgages
- Section 8 Housing
- Settlement of Litigation
- Social Media
- Special Education
- Special Needs Planning
- Surrogate Decision-Making
- Taxation
- Technology
- Texting
- Top Ten
- Trials
- Trustees
- Uncategorized
- Veterans Benefits
- Web Sites and the Internet
- Webinar
- Writing Intended To Be A Will
Vanarelli & Li, LLC on Social Media