ShadyBrother
Junior Member
I have an ethical question regarding estate law in NY. My mom passed away last November. Four days after her death my brother filed for Letters of Administration, even though he was well aware that she had a will. I had a copy of her will but needed to find the original. I contacted the lawyer who wrote it and was able to obtain and file the will, which put the cabash on his letters of administration.
As I waited to file the will, my brother had jumped the gun. He had started to act as if he were already the administrator of her estate. He wrote me an email stating that he was going to be paying all of her bills until an estate account had been established. My moms will named her two sisters as executors. I notified them that I had filed the will and it took them over two months to file their petitions. During that time I was still under the impression that my mother's bills were being paid by my brother. My aunt's decided to use the same lawyer as my brother and they refuse to communicate with me and so I decided to contest the will and object to them being executors.
In the meanwhile, as we wait for our next court date to approach, my mom's car was repossessed. As you can imagine, I was shocked when I heard it had been repo'd, since my brother told me he was paying her car bill. I cannot see the bills because my brother apparently stopped the mail, or at least I thought. I called the financial institution that held her loan and they wouldn't give me any info. Since I know the email and passwords to some of my moms accounts I was able to get into her account for her loan. I still was unable to see anything regarding the loan. The only part of her account I was able to see was her billing information. I had noticed that someone had changed the billing address on her account. I looked up the account and sure enough the statements for the car loan were being mailed to my brother's lawyer's office.
Here's my question..... since there is no administrator or executor appointed at this point in time, is it ethical for the lawyer to have his office as the billing address on my mom's account? He is not representing the estate. He is representing my brother, an heir and my aunts as the proposed executors. Does the fact that their lawyer's address is on the account make him liable for the car? Is anyone liable for the car, at this point? Had I had access to the statements, I probably would've paid off the loan since there was only a small amount left. The car got repo'd and now I must chalk it up as a loss, even though I had no control over it.
As I waited to file the will, my brother had jumped the gun. He had started to act as if he were already the administrator of her estate. He wrote me an email stating that he was going to be paying all of her bills until an estate account had been established. My moms will named her two sisters as executors. I notified them that I had filed the will and it took them over two months to file their petitions. During that time I was still under the impression that my mother's bills were being paid by my brother. My aunt's decided to use the same lawyer as my brother and they refuse to communicate with me and so I decided to contest the will and object to them being executors.
In the meanwhile, as we wait for our next court date to approach, my mom's car was repossessed. As you can imagine, I was shocked when I heard it had been repo'd, since my brother told me he was paying her car bill. I cannot see the bills because my brother apparently stopped the mail, or at least I thought. I called the financial institution that held her loan and they wouldn't give me any info. Since I know the email and passwords to some of my moms accounts I was able to get into her account for her loan. I still was unable to see anything regarding the loan. The only part of her account I was able to see was her billing information. I had noticed that someone had changed the billing address on her account. I looked up the account and sure enough the statements for the car loan were being mailed to my brother's lawyer's office.
Here's my question..... since there is no administrator or executor appointed at this point in time, is it ethical for the lawyer to have his office as the billing address on my mom's account? He is not representing the estate. He is representing my brother, an heir and my aunts as the proposed executors. Does the fact that their lawyer's address is on the account make him liable for the car? Is anyone liable for the car, at this point? Had I had access to the statements, I probably would've paid off the loan since there was only a small amount left. The car got repo'd and now I must chalk it up as a loss, even though I had no control over it.