Thames v. Thames, Alabama Appeals Case, Personal Representative Appointment Challenged but Upheld.

Are you involved in probating a will in West Palm Beach? Has a relative   that you do not trust been named as thepersonal representative because the will’s original appointee declined to exercise the power? So now you seek to remove the personal representative? You may want to see what the Civil Appeals Court of Alabama had to say about the matter in a March 20, 2015 case.

Removing a Personal Representative

• Palm Beach probate courts know that sometimes a personal representative is not a good fit, and courts are more than willing when good cause is shown to remove a personal representative.
• Even if they were appointed by the will!
• But, it may not be as simple as you think to get appointed in their place.
• Do you know what the court is going to look for when they pick a new personal representative?
• Are you a resident of Florida, specifically West Palm Beach?
• Are you responsible with finances?
• As one adult child found out in a recent case, a court may not be willing to grant the relief you request if you cannot show cause for removal.

Thames v. Thames : Removal Denied

• The decedent’s adult child filed a petition objecting to the decedent’s widow’s request to be appointed personal representative of the estate after the executor named in the will declined to serve.
• The will was admitted anyways so the child appealed but ultimately lost.
• Do you know what the court looked at to decline the child’s request to serve as personal representative?
• The child lived in Georgia for the last twenty years, not Alabama where the probate was taking place.
• Although Alabama allows a personal representative to be absent it is only for limited reasons such as military, charitable, religious or similar reasons.
• In fact the decedent’s will even alluded to the fact that his child was not an Alabama resident!
• The court also looked at the widow to judge her competence for the role of personal representative and looked at the fact that she had failed to create a full inventory of the estate.
• Ultimately the widow’s appointment stood, do you think it should have after failing to create an inventory?

Want to learn more? Check out the whole case by clicking here.