Executor paid out to benefit of heir without consent of heir

[cbvance]

Arkansas.

Just prior to my dads death I had visited him and had some tests done at his urging, I told him I did not have insurance and could not pay him back. He told me not to worry about it.
I did not sign any agreements with the hospital, my dad made the arrangements and agreed to repay the hospital 1000 dollars per month.

Then he passed away after paying only 2000 dollars of it.

Executor paid out bills from the hospital as they came in over a period of a year that added up to 12400 dollars.

Now my sister claims that dad told someone he intended for the money to be taken out of my inheritance.

So, the executor deducted the 12400 dollars from my share of the estate.

First, I never signed for the hospital services in the first place, therefore it must have been dad's bill not mine and the executor should have paid the amount in full as a claim against the estate.

Next I never consented to any of the payments that are now being characterized as "distributions" made to my benefit.

Then to top it off, dad left myself, my brother and two sisters 60 acres of land and they asked me to sell my portion to them because they didnt want to have anything to do with me.

The Executor drafted an agreement whereby I would sell them the land and they would forgive me the medical debts.

The agreements was no more than complete when they told me they only meant the medical bills dad paid prior to his death, or 2000 dollars, I understood the agreement to mean ALL of the debts.

So now I have been docked 12400 dollars

[Dandy Don]

Has the will been officially probated in court?

Is probate going on now or is it over?

What executor is doing is improper if not illegal. If there was enough money in the estate to continue making those payments, then it's great that the executor carried out the moral obligation to pay the past due amount, but they have no business deducting it from your share (although you must admit that you would have been using your own funds to repay it if the man was still living). Executor could have negotiated with the hospital to perhaps pay a reduced amount or refused to pay and have the amount later written off by the hospital.

Now all you need to do is decide if you are going to get your money back by hiring a probate lawyer to raise an objection in probate court as to how this was done or sue in civil court. And you also need to look at the probate court file to see if this executor has posted an executor's bond or whether the will exempts him from needing to do this.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA (tiekh@yahoo.com)

[cbvance]

The probate is not final. There still remains one more distribution pending the sale of one last property my dad owned and final payment of taxes.

I have requested a copy of everything that has been filed thus far in the probate court and I am waiting for that information.

As I said, the executor is my Uncle, I don't want him to pay from his personal accounts, I want the final distribution to be reallocated to get the money back from my siblings since they received the amount deducted from my share.

[anteater]

If you had agreed to all this to keep peace in the family, I could understand. But, since your siblings "didnt want to have anything to do with" you, I would have insisted that the estate pay the debt that your father apparently obligated himself to pay to the hospital - without any offset to your share of the estate. Your sister's claim that "dad told someone he intended for the money to be taken out of my inheritance" is not worth a bucket of warm spit.

That said, there is still enough at stake that you should retain an attorney.