Florida is an international city and many of us have property all over the world. How does an estate being administered in a foreign country affect your rights here? The simple answer is that you may lack an adequate remedy at law against executors and personal representatives of estates that are outside of the state of Florida. This becomes especially troublesome in cases where the will was probated outside the United States.
The Probate Code defines “foreign personal representative” as “a personal representative of another state or a foreign country.” § 731.201(17), Fla. Stat. The code further defines “personal representative” as “the fiduciary appointed by the court to administer the estate and refers to what has been known as an administrator, administrator cum testamento annexo, administrator de bonis non, ancillary administrator, ancillary executor, or executor.” § 731.201(28), Fla. Stat. Furthermore, “court” is defined in the statute as “the circuit court.” § 731.201(7), Florida Statutes.
Here is just one story of some of the issues that can arise:
- In 1991, Simon Davidson (“Decedent”) died testate in Spain, and was survived by his son, Allan Davidson (“Allan”), and his brother, Stanley Davidson (“Stanley”). Luis M. Juega (“Juega”), a Spanish citizen and a resident of Marbella, Spain, was appointed by the Spanish court to serve as administrator of the Decedent’s estate.
- The Spanish court eventually found Allan to be the Decedent’s sole heir, and in 2003, entered an order closing the estate.
- A complicated series of corporate litigations took place whereby the Davidsons felt that Juega had acted improperly as administrator.
- The Davidsons filed a verified amended counterclaim, which contained two counts against Juega in his individual capacity for civil conspiracy and conversion in Florida.
- Juega moved to dismiss the counts against him in his individual capacity for lack of personal jurisdiction.
- Basically Juega said that 1) he had resided in Spain since 1959; 2) he had never owned property in Florida; 3) at all times material to the allegations in the counterclaim, he had never personally operated, conducted, engaged in, or carried on any business in Florida; and 4) the only contact or dealings Juega ever had with Stanley in Florida were in Juega’s capacity as representative of the Decedent’s estate.
- The Davidson’s also argued that section 734.201(3), Florida Statutes, part of Florida’s Probate Code, conferred personal jurisdiction upon Juega.
Section 734.201(3) provides in relevant part:
Jurisdiction by act of foreign personal representative.–A foreign personal representative submits personally to the jurisdiction of the courts of this state in any proceeding concerning the estate by:
….
(3) Doing any act as personal representative in this state that would have given the state jurisdiction over that person as an individual.
Juega correctly argued that the Probate Code is, in this case, inapplicable. As the Florida Supreme Court has stated, “[t]he Florida Probate Code constitutes a unified statutory scheme intended to govern all probate matters–section 731.102, Florida Statutes (2007), expressly states that the probate code ‘is intended as unified coverage of its subject matter.’
There was simply no basis for the appellees’ assertion that by virtue of participating in a civil action in capacities other than as an individual, Juega submitted to the jurisdiction of the court under the Probate Code.