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Garbled Situation - Graspng at Straws?

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GottaGo

Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? NJ

Hi. I have a friend who died about 12 years ago. He had earned his first million and was in an accident where he became a paraplegic. His mother was then given power of attorney. He sued and was awarded another 20-something million and died shortly thereafter.
At the time of his death I was told by 1 of his nurses that the family was unable to find the will. While my friend was alive he told me that I was in his will.

I did not pursue it at the time of his death because of several reasons. One, my friend was very temperamental and had a habit of making drastic decisions like writing people out of his will. We were not on the best of terms at the time of his death.
Two, he had 2 children and I thought that if no will was found his mother would more than likely give the majority of it to them, which in my mind was the right thing to do.

It has always bugged me over the years though, wondering if, in fact, I was left anything. Afterall, we did share many years of friendship and even a few years of more than friendship.

So, my question is, after all this time, is there any way to find out if a will was ever found and if, in fact, I was in that original will.

One last note - before my friend was paralyzed he was in law school and may have drafted his own will. Also, he may have actually passed in Florida, although he was buried here in NJ where his parents and siblings were residing. I do not remember.

Thanks for reading all this.
 
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JETX

Senior Member
So, my question is, after all this time, is there any way to find out if a will was ever found
Only if it was filed with the probate court. Contact them.

and if, in fact, I was in that original will.
See above. The probate court might be able to find that file and, if a will was filed, get a copy for you.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
It is not very likely that you were left anything, because the executor would have/should have made an effort to try to notify you by mail, but this is still worth looking into. Also check New Jersey unclaimed property records for your name (link to it by going to NAUPA and clicking on the link to New Jersey). By intestate law, the estate goes to a surviving spouse (if any), then to the children, and then to his siblings, so you would have no legal standing to claim anything from the estate (it is to the children's and mother's advantage to "pretend" that they can't find the will since they will probably inherit more without the will, and they probably deliberately withheld it or destroyed it).

Check at the county courthouse surrogate court/probate court that applies to whatever city in New Jersey that he died in. Many courthouses even have online probate record indexes now where you can search for the decedent's case by name. You will also need to check records for whatever county he died in in Florida.

Problem is that you waited too long to do anything about this. You had good reasons to delay, but if you had consulted with an attorney at the time you could have requested that probate be opened so that the judge could ask whoever had the will produce it for court, or placed a classified ad asking for anyone who has information about the will (such as witnesses to it or an attorney who helped prepare it) contact you with the relevant information/details. Do you know whether or not the will would have been prepared by an attorney?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA
 
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GottaGo

Member
It is not very likely that you were left anything, because the executor would have/should have made an effort to try to notify you by mail, but this is still worth looking into. Also check New Jersey unclaimed property records for your name (link to it by going to NAUPA and clicking on the link to New Jersey). By intestate law, the estate goes to a surviving spouse (if any), then to the children, and then to his siblings, so you would have no legal standing to claim anything from the estate (it is to the children's and mother's advantage to "pretend" that they can't find the will since they will probably inherit more without the will, and they probably deliberately withheld it or destroyed it).

There was no surviving spouse, there was an ex-spouse and I believe his 2 children were from 2 different mothers. He had a sister and brother as well, but I do believe that his mother (she had power of attorney) would not have been 'anxious' to produce an actual will that distributed his money anywhere outside of their bloodline.


Check at the county courthouse surrogate court/probate court that applies to whatever city in New Jersey that he died in. Many courthouses even have online probate record indexes now where you can search for the decedent's case by name. You will also need to check records for whatever county he died in in Florida.

I am not sure where exactly he died. How can I find that out?

Problem is that you waited too long to do anything about this. You had good reasons to delay, but if you had consulted with an attorney at the time you could have requested that probate be opened so that the judge could ask whoever had the will produce it for court, or placed a classified ad asking for anyone who has information about the will (such as witnesses to it or an attorney who helped prepare it) contact you with the relevant information/details. Do you know whether or not the will would have been prepared by an attorney?

The will may have been prepared by an attorney or even by my friend. I don't know who his attorney was. His mother knows I'm sure, which is why it was very hard for me to believe that they couldn't find a copy of the will. The man was paraplegic, he couldn't physically put it anywhere himself, someone would have had to help him in some way.


Thanks.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Post the man's name here and the city/state he lived in in New Jersey so we can search death indexes and New Jersey newspapers for the obit. For Florida, go to www.myfloridacounty.com, then click on Order Official Records, then click on Non-Subscriber Search to search by name.

Do you have any idea of what month and/or year the death may have occurred?
Do you have any idea of who his friends were or names of persons who may have been asked to be witnesses to the will?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA
 
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GottaGo

Member
myfloridacounty site did not have anything, but through some geneology site that took me to ss index i think i may have found a match in florida for december 15, 1998. it said an obituary was written in the south florida sun sentinel.

So at this point should i be calling the broward county, fl probate office and the union county probate office to see if a probate for his will was ever filed/open?
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
My apologies for forgetting to tell you about the Social Security Death index website.

That website does also show the city and COUNTY where the person died (usually shows only one county, but sometimes a city can be considered to be located in more than one county), so if the death index showed Broward County that is who you would need to call, but I don't understand why you mentioned Union County.

Do a GOOGLE search using the phrase, in quotation marks, "Broward County Clerk of Court" and in the results will come up his home page, Broward County Clerk of Court - Home and you can click on the PUBLIC SEARCH link and do a search on the name and hopefully probate case will come up.

Sun Sentinel newspaper's website is South Florida - Broward, Palm Beach and Miami-Dade news, sports, weather, hurricane coverage, restaurants, jobs, cars, real estate, classifieds, scared of santa photos -- South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com (hopefully they have an archives that goes as far back as when the death occurred and maybe the obit will come up).

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA
 
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GottaGo

Member
I mentioned Union County because although I think i found an indicator of his death in Broward county Fl. I was not sure if that was because a case for survivor's benefits was filed there or because he actually passed there.
At least one of his children live there in Broward county and so I thought maybe they filed for benefits there.
He was actually buried here in NJ and his mother (power of atty) resided here at the time as well, so I thought perhaps the will could have been probated here.

I had actually searched the sun sentinel's paper already, to no avail.
I will contact the broward county clerk and see if I find anything.

Thanks for your help, Dandy Don. I will keep you updated with any news.
 

Dandy Don

Senior Member
Just wanted to mention that family surnames should not be posted here but I did find a mention of an obit for a person with your friend's name in the Dec. 17, 1998 issue of the Newark Star Ledger, possibly died in Orange, NJ which is in Essex County.

DANDY DON
 
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Dandy Don

Senior Member
All of his assets may have been put into a trust and if that is the case there is no need for probate and you will not find a record of probate anywhere.

DANDY DON
 
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