SEVEN SIBLINGS FIGHT OVER MOM & DAD’S REAL ESTATE AND PROBATE: recent Kentucky tortious interference with expectancy jury trial

Do you think mom and dad expected that their seven kids would fight about the real estate and probate after they died?

Maybe not, but a recent Kentucky appeals court case reveals all that can go wrong when adult kids fight over real estate and a probate. This case was a recent matter involving beneficiaries’ claims of tortious interference with an inheritance, also known as tortious interference with an expectancy and sometimes spelled tortuous interference with an inheritance. What can Florida estate beneficiaries learn from this?

The Kentucky appellate courts upheld a lower court’s (trial court’s) jury verdict. This demonstrates, and is a good example of, an inheritance lawsuit where beneficiaries, that is children, can get a jury trial while fighting over Florida probate or a Florida estate. In Florida, inheritance lawsuits or probate litigation generally do not call for a jury trial, but rather Florida estate lawsuits are settled by the probate court judge.

In this recent Kentucky case, the siblings were fighting over a very “typical” inheritance lawsuit that Florida probate litigators are involved with quite often. Four siblings sued their three siblings, and contended that the three siblings exerted undue influence over their mother, who was 87 when she died. The siblings argued that their mother lacked mental capacity to make a gift. In essence, this probate litigation, this estate litigation, dealt with trying to settle the estate and the estate accounts or accounting. (In Florida, all estate and probate matters must have a complete accounting unless the beneficiaries of the Florida estate knowingly and voluntarily waive an accounting. ) The siblings who sued their siblings got a jury trial . They argued that mom improperly transferred bank accounts and real estate to certain children. The four siblings claimed that the other three children exerted undue influence over their mom and caused mom to transfer real estate and bank accounts to the three other siblings.

The four siblings argued that because of the undue influence and the fact that their mother lacked the mental ability or mental capacity to make a gift, that the four siblings intentionally interfered with their siblings’ inheritance. This is a tort: which permits punitive damages and monetary damages. In Florida, punitive damages may be available but there is a specific procedure that is necessary for someone in a lawsuit to be able to seek punitive damages. Punitive damages are not a given, whether in a probate lawsuit or any estate inheritance dispute.

In the end, the siblings who sued lost. In Florida, proving that a gift was invalid requires that you demonstrate, with credible evidence that mom lacked the mental capacity to sign the deed or change the bank accounts, or that, regarding the undue influence claim, that your siblings put so much pressure on mom that when mom signed the deed to the real estate or changed the title to the bank accounts, those were not mom’s real acts or deeds: they were really the product of the kids who were practicing the undue influence.

In South Florida, including Palm Beach County and Broward County, Florida, probate lawyers and probate trial lawyers are very familiar with what is required to prove or defend such a case. The “tort” or the civil wrong or cause of action of tortuous interference with an inheritance is recognized by Florida law and Florida courts. In fact, probate courts in Palm Beach and Broward County probate judges regularly hear these tortuous interference trials.

In the end, you have to prove all the elements of this inheritance lawsuit. This means that you have to obtain and introduce substantial credible evidence for a probate judge to agree with you. What’s your strategy? Advocate hard. Litigate smart.