Probate and the Law

[answersplse]

my home state is Texas;
I went to the county clerks office and got a copy of my grandfathers will and probate proceedings. now I found among those papers that the Order Closing Administration was never signed by a judge. there was a letter from the Independant Executors (Attorneys) requesting the clerks have the judge sign off.They'd enclosed a check to have that done. yet it was never done.
Does this mean the independent executor is still overseeing the
estate of my grandfather some 15 years later?
Also it has come to my attention by some of the other heirs that the executor never notified any of them about the reading of the will, he also never put in the final account the savings and checking accounts of my grandfather. The executor who is also one of five other Trustees.is now trying to sell the heir property for which the will clearly states cannot be sold. he already has a realty company going through the motions for sale. What can mom do to stop him?
It also comes to my attention the executor put his name only on the deed to the house that had already been homsteaded by my grandfather. Per the will the two girls can live in the house as long as they want as long as the pay the taxes ,insurance,maintance. mom does all this.
can you PLEASE just give me some input. This is really taking a toll on my mom's health.
CAN I SUE HIM TO STOP HIM FOR HERRASMENT TO MY MOM?

 

[ALawyer]

15 years is a long time, and the fact that a copy of the order is in the file suggests that another copy may have been signed. But you'll need a local lawyer to help you figure this out, particularly at this late date.

 

[advisor10]

3-18-2002

DEAR ANSWERSPLSE:

I'm not familiar with Texas law, so that is why you need to ASK THESE QUESTIONS WITH A LOCAL TEXAS PROBATE LAW ATTORNEY. Since it doesn't look as if the estate has officially closed, there is a good chance that these financial matters are important enough that they still need to be resolved, and the time limit may not matter (even though it has been 15 years). An estate can be reopened at ANY time to take care of any new situations or unfinished business that may occur.

(Send me an e-mail message to my e-mail address shown below so I can send you a confidential tip about your situation.)

NOTIFICATION OF HEIRS. His not having a "reading of the will" is not very significant. That is something that occurs mostly on TV. He WAS required to post proof of publication (a classified ad in the newspaper that announces the date and time of the probate hearing where the will is introduced), and the heirs were expected to somehow read this ad and then show up for the hearing. Although this method is highly unfair (the heirs probably would have missed seeing this ad), yes, it would have been the ethical and responsible thing for the executor to do to at least mail copies of the will to each heir. But in reality, the heirs could have seen the will at any time by visiting the probate court at the county courthouse.

(1) Have the heirs received anything at all from this estate (either the will OR the trust)? Why have you waited so long to ask questions about this, or is this just the way the situation has turned out?

(2) It is a most important point that you need to get an accounting of the checking and savings account as to what happened with that money. It should have been added to the estate, and you might need to get a court order from the judge to force the executor to provide this accounting. To do your own research on this, if you know the bank that the monies were held at, you could also get an order from the judge permitting the bank to release that account information. If executor keeps stalling and delaying in providing this information, this is negligence/incompetence on his part and you all could start proceedings to have him removed as executor and/or as trustee.

(3) Find out (either from the court clerk at probate court, or by examining the probate file to see if a premium payment for executor's bond insurance was made) if your county requires that executors post a bond. If the answer is yes, then if it turns out that any monies were stolen from beneficiaries in this estate, the beneficiaries can file a claim with the bond insurance company to recover that money.

(4) If you are correct in what you say about the property not being able to be sold because the will states that, then your mother should send the realty company a certified letter informing them that the sale should be cancelled because the executor is not legally allowed to make the sale (if possible, also attach a copy of the portion of the will that mentions the house can not be sold). DOES THE WILL SPECIFICALLY MENTION WHO THE OWNER OF THE HOUSE IS, OR WAS THE HOUSE PUT INTO THE TRUST, OR IS THE EXECUTOR THE OFFICIAL OWNER OF THE HOUSE? If the will is unclear about who the owner of the house is, you may want to ask a real estate attorney or probate attorney if it is necessary to have any more names added to the deed if someone else qualifies as official owner.

This executor's actions look to be somewhat suspicious. Unless he has a good reason for not providing information, it looks like he has stolen the bank account money and is getting even greedier by trying to sell the house. It means he intentionally left the probate file incomplete so that no one else would find out about his improper, if not illegal, actions. At some point you need to bring up this matter before the probate judge so he will know what is going on with this estate.

Exactly how has he harrassed your mother? If necessary, you could get a restraining order if he is making nasty phone calls or threats in person. But hopefully it has not gotten that bad yet.

You really do need to have a probate attorney look at this estate file to examine the paperwork and transactions to see exactly what has been done correctly and/or incorrectly, and I'm sure the probate attorney can better advise you on what options/next steps you need to take to get these matters resolved.

SINCERELY,

advisor (e-mail: [email protected])