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Florida Probate & Trust Litigation Blog

• 4th DCA: Can a probate judge boot a recalcitrant cotenant out of homestead property?

  Buettner v. Fass, --- So.3d ----, 2009 WL 3446478 (Fla. 4th DCA Oct 28, 2009)

  Why??!!, your clients will ask, do you have to start a new partition action in front of a new judge to adjudicate an existing dispute involving a decedent's homestead property if everything else the decedent [...]

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• 3d DCA: Is Florida's slayer statute equivalent to a forfeiture statute, awarding all of a killer's property to the estate of the victim?

  LoCascio v. Sharpe, --- So.3d ----, 2009 WL 3448111 (Fla.App. 3 Dist. Oct 28, 2009)

  Silvia Locascio's brutally beaten corpse was found in her home (pictured below) on October 30, 2001. Eventually her husband and brother-in-law were found guilty of her murder - based in large part on the testimony' [...]

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• Georgia's 'Slayer Statute' Doesn't Bar Lawyers From Keeping Fees Paid by Executrix, Judges Rule

  

  A year ago things looked pretty bleak for attorney Ben Kuehne here in Miami and a couple of Georgia lawyers who were arrested and apparently spent a night in jail after their client was forced to forfeit estate assets under Georgia's Slayer Statute [click here]. All were' [...]

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• Georgia's 'Slayer Statute' Doesn't BaLawyers From Keeping Fees Paid by Executrix, Judges Rule

  

  A year ago things looked pretty bleak for attorney Ben Kuehne here in Miami and a couple of Georgia lawyers who were arrested and apparently spent a night in jail after their client was forced to forfeit estate assets under Georgia's Slayer Statute [click here]. All were [...]

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• Bankr.S.D.Fla: Judgment against former trustee NOT dischargeable in bankruptcy

  In re Barrett, Slip Copy, 2009 WL 2448153 (Bankr. S.D.Fla. Aug 06, 2009)

  The ultimate ace in the hole for any debtor is bankruptcy. But the bankruptcy card isn’t full proof. Last year a Florida bankruptcy judge ruled that a probate judge’s money judgment against a former personal representative was [...]

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• 4th DCA: Spousal Joint Ownership: Legal Presumptions vs. Antenuptial Agreements: Who Wins?

  Turchin v. Turchin, --- So.3d ----, 2009 WL 2871564 (Fla. 4th DCA Sep 09, 2009)

  If I buy an investment property with my own pre-marital funds but jointly title the property with my wife, what was my intent?  Did I intend to gift a 1/2 interest in the property to [...]

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• Minimizing a Personal Representative's Personal Liability to Pay Taxes

  

  I've recently been lecturing on tax issues in play in probate and trust litigation [click here]. After giving this lecture a couple of times I noticed a pattern: the single tax question most probate lawyers were concerned with was how to limit a personal representative's personal tax-exposure risk, [...]

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• 3d DCA: Will Construction Litigation as Morality Play

  Chin v. Estate of Chin, --- So.3d ----, 2009 WL 2382326 (Fla. 3d DCA Aug 05, 2009)

  Will construction litigation is supposed to be all about figuring out what the dry words on a piece of paper called a "will" are supposed to mean. We can't ask the testator what' [...]

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• Brooke Astor's Son Guilty in Scheme to Defraud Her

  A bitter chapter in the litigation swirling around Brooke Astor and her estate - worth more than $180 million when she died two years ago - came to a close this week when Anthony Marshall was found guilty on criminal charges that he defrauded his mother and stole tens of millions of dollars from her as she suffered from [...]

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• Illinois Supreme Court upholds "Jewish Clause"

  I previously wrote here about the so-called “Jewish Clause” at the heart of an Illinois probate battle that’s received a good amount of national attention. The first time around an intermediate appellate court ruled the clause was not enforceable. In Estate of Max Feinberg, the Illinois Supreme Court has now reversed that [...]

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