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Debts after Decree

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patty weber

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Pennsylvania

I am the exectrix for my fathers estate. My oldest brother made my job very hard and caused alot of problems. He is a high executive with lots of money, but Dad assigned me to finalized his estate cause my Dad did not trust my brother. Anyway, my brother hired a dirty attorney that followed me and the estate attorney around with every move, questioning, judging and threatening everything. Of course, my attorney expected every petition they threw at us, til finally we landed into court and I learned that the court system was not there to judge right from wrong, but in turn to settle in some form of money settlement. Anyway, a decree was issued and I basically paid my brother off to rid him out of my life. In the meantime, my fathers Federal and State tax return had to be done for 2007, which was not completed until after the First and Final Account was issued to the court in January of 2008. Know my brother is refusing to pay these tax of $3,000, and their attorney says I legally can not come after him to pay. My attorney battling this estate for a 1 1/2 years and is worn out and finally told me to just pay them out of my own pocket and pay my brother in full the amount on the decree. Is this right or does it sound like my attorney is fed up? He told me it would cost him $5,000 to fight this in court and it's not worth it.
 


tranquility

Senior Member
I agree with SJ. The problems in getting back the money would be expensive to litigate and may be problematical because of the circimstances. It was an error to distribute the estate before all the paperwork, including the final year's returns, was done. I'm sorry you got bullied into make the error. Perhaps you should ask your attorney why he didn't advise you to hold back some money in just such a case or to not distribute until the paperwork was done. Ask him if he'd like to kick in a few dollars to the pot. While I don't think it malpractice, it's close.
 

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