On March 15, 2022, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided Willis v. Cheeley (A21A1730). There, a contested probate proceeding boiled over into the Superior Court of Gwinnett County where Appellee Joseph E. Cheeley III secured a declaratory judgment against Appellant William Joseph Willis. The Court of Appeals held the declaratory judgment was improperly granted because […]
In Department of Human Services v. Hobart, the Oregon Court of Appeals ruled, on March 2, 2022, that Oregon’s Medicaid agency could pull a Medicaid recipient’s interest in a marital home back into her estate for purposes of estate recovery. The federal Medicaid law requires States to pursue estate recovery, but some States are more […]
On March 4, 2022, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided In re Estate of Elinor J. Ferrell (A21A1361). There, Alvin Ferrell filed a Petition to Probate his mother’s Will. His siblings filed a caveat (an objection) contesting the Will. The Caveators contested probate of the will asserting that (1) the Decedent was “not of the […]
In Walker v. Richmond (Ga. Ct. App. 3/1/2022), a Tennessee probate case crossed into Georgia in the context of a declaratory judgment action, a default judgment and a motion to set aside the default. Alfonso Patton, a Tennessee resident, was under a Tennessee conservatorship. After Patton died in 2013, his only biological child, Patricia Richmond, […]
In In re Estate of Tom Cone, Jr., filed February 28, 2022, the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirmed the Probate Court’s decision that a testamentary gift was adeemed by extinction. Tom Cone, Jr., died on November 6, 2015. In his Will, he left his interest in a corporation, Cone Solvents, to his sister, Susan Ligon. […]
On February 24, 2022, the Georgia Court of Appeals decided In re Estate of Plybon (Appeal No. A21A1740, 2/24/2022). There, executrix Dorothy Johnson appealed from a Douglas County Probate Court order which construed the meaning of a 2013 Superior Court consent order in the context of a Petition for accounting and Final Settlement of Accounts. […]
Poor estate planning (or no planning) can result in unexpected and unintended results. All States have a law similar to O.C.G.A. § 53-2-1(c), idenitfying your heirs when you don’t have a Will, or if your Will doesn’t cover all of your property. Section 53-2-1(c) provides: (c) Except as provided in subsection (d) of this Code section, […]
In In Re Estate of McClendon, 359 Ga. App. 259 (2021), decedent David McLendon’s Will was offered for probate by his widow and brother. McLendon’s children filed a caveat claiming the Will was invalid because it was not executed in accordance with the required formalities. After the Probate Court admitted the Will for probate, McLendon’s […]
In In re Estate of Curvan (Ga. Ct. App. A21A1435 2/16/2022), Sharon Lavant offered a July 31, 2019 Will of Randolph Curvan for probate. Cheryl Curvan, Charmaine Curvan and Randolph Curvan filed a caveat. Among their complaints, they alleged the Will was not the valid last will of Decedent, that the signatures on the Will […]
In The Matter of Jerry Boykin (Ga. S22Y0563 2/15/2022), attorney Jerry Bokin had been on disability status since 2018 and was not actively practicing. Nonetheless, in 2020, he filed a petition to probate a Will. After learning that a subsequent Will was filed appointing co-executors, Boykin tried to talk one of the co-executors into renouncing […]
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