A recent court of appeals decision illustrates what happens when you file an inheritance dispute in the Wrong Texas Court. An elderly Texas man had nine children. In the last few years of his life, one of his children gained control of the man. She obtained a power of Continue reading
In a recent case in Texas, a mother and father had a trust for the benefit of their two children. The mother died. The father later remarried and had two additional children. The father attempted to revoke the first trust and made provisions for the property to go to his four children, share and share alike. When the father died, one of the first two children asked the court to declare that the revocation of the first trust was invalid. The court agreed stating: Continue reading
In 2016, the Texas court of appeals in Austin had to decide if a will was voidable because of public policy. The testator had one child, a girl. Two days before he died, he executed a new will that disinherited his daughter. The daughter contested the will. Her principal theory was that her disinheritance by her father violated ” public policy” –namely Texas’s strong public policy against sexual abuse of children. As her basis for that theory, she alleged that her father had abused her sexually while she was a Continue reading
The idea to take away from the case discussed in this article and similar cases is that this will had been admitted to probate. If the family had not contested it, the “friend” would have taken all the estate. Even invalid wills sometimes get admitted to probate as this one did. So to the question of “Can you probate an invalid will in Texas?” The answer is yes if the proper beneficiaries don’t take action quickly to contest the will.
In The Estate of Romo (not that Romo), the El Paso Court of Appeals ruled on a will contest case. The will had been filed by the testator’s “friend” and the judge admitted it to probate. It left the testator’s estate to the friend. Several months after the will had been admitted to probate, a will contest was filed by the testator’s family. The family offered a prior will that left all to the family. The will contest was filed because, allegedly, the testator did not have the mental capacity to make the new will and he was Continue reading
Texas does not allow a pre-death (Antemortem) will contest. 254 sw2 862. As long as the testator is alive, Texas considers his will changeable and therefore, a will contest would be a waste of time. However, a few states allow pre-death will contest including Ohio, Arkansas, North Dakota, and Alaska. A few states like New Jersey are considering allowing them.
Will Sleeth, an attorney in Williamsburg, Va wrote an article about pre-death will contest. He explained what it is: Continue reading