Who can challenge a will? February 24, 2015 Montana will contest case

In order to bring any lawsuit in Florida a person needs standing. Standing is the personal nature of a case it means that you have a stake in the litigation. This is also true of a Probate case like challenging a will in Palm Beach County Florida. In a February 24, 2015 case out of the Supreme Court of Montana the Court held that the testator’s niece who was not mentioned in a will did not have standing to challenge the will on grounds of undue influence. For more read below and check out the case of InRe Estate of Lawlor. 

• Personal representative of testator’s estate filed motion to admit testator’s will to informal probate.
• Daughter of testator’s sister not mentioned in will, filed a complaint contesting the will, asserting that testator lacked testamentary capacity at time the will was executed, and that he had been subjected to undue influence, and sought to set aside the will.
• She subsequently filed a motion requesting that the personal representative be removed.
• Attorney for the estate moved for a determination of whether daughter had standing.
• The Court ultimately held that no she did not have standing.

The Court noted that in order to have standing to challenge a will under the Montana Probate Code (which is based on the Uniform Trust Code just as Florida’s Probate Code is).

1. You must be an interested party. This is defined by the statute as someone with a pecuniary interest in setting aside the will. Pecuniary means that an interest that a person has in a matter because of a reasonable liklihood of expectation of appreciable financial gain or loss to the person or another person with the person is associated with in an official capacity such as marriage or partnership. 
2. If you would benefit if you won you are an interested party. In other words here the fact that the niece would have gotten a part of the estate through intestacy is relevant to the Court’s analysis.
3. Standing to do different things is not always based on the same facts. Standing to challenge the will  was not the same as standing to challenge the appointment of the Personal Representative. Since in this case the cause for removal was there was a conflict of interest not because of the changes that could result from the will contest the court found that the petitioner did not have standing.

Are concerned that you may not have standing to sue or that someone exerted undue influence on a loved one in crafting an estate plan? Know your rights. Read more and check out our FAQ video library here: http://www.pankauskilawfirm.com