Issue: Estate without enough cash to pay debts of the estate.
What happens: Petition to sell real or personal property
Occasionally an estate has to sell assets of the estate to pay debts and expenses.
Normally, this is not a problem if there are heirs to share and share alike.
But what happens if the executor or public administrator wants to sell a specific assets, such as real property, that would be inherited by Beneficiary X, which in turn benefits the remaining heirs as a result.
This happens.
Kirk Sanders has contested cases in this situation.
First prong of the attack was the actual debt being asserted by a creditor. This claim was accepted by the administrator of the estate.
Mr. Sanders filed a response to the petition stating the claim was unfounded, the claim was too late, the claim was made by another estate that already had accepted the property. Interestingly enough, the other estate’s decedent inherited the asset and after a will determination in that estate went against that executor/beneficiary, through an act respondent deemed conniving, rescinded a gift previously inherited over two years before.
As a result, one of the defenses to the petition to sell real property was the ‘bogus’ defense. “Bogus” is actually in the Black’s Law Dictionary. Other defenses included statutory time had passed in an estate claim and laches.
When you have an estate litigation matter or a trust litigation dispute, contact Kirk Sanders 336-723-7200 at Hendrick Bryant Nerhood Sanders & Otis LLP to handle your fiduciary litigation
