Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Kansas
Do I need to contest a will and if so how do I?
My mother passed away on 03/17/02 at Raleigh Community Hospital in NC from cancer. Her 2nd husband not our father lives in KS and this is where the will was made. I have not asked for a copy of it. My mother had 6 children. Her and husband both shared the house (a modest house out in the country) and stock worth about $10,000. We knew that he inherited it all to make the will simple. However, it has been common knowledge that the children would get the sentimental items. I have been told he has a list that my mom made of the items she wanted us to have, however, this list was not notarized or put in the will. This would include family pictures, and a collection of cups and saucers that our grandmother collected through out the years. We do not want the house, land or appliances or the stock.
Unfortunately, when we tried to come out to KS on 3/20, her husband said that we were not allowed. The reason being it was too soon for him and he needed to go through her things. Almost 2 weeks later and he still has not been able to go through her things.
We were thinking that if we contested the will, this would put their house and stocks in probate and maybe this would pressure him to give us our sentimental items that we want.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Do I need to contest a will and if so how do I?
I would recommend that you try giving him a little more time and attempt a diplomatic solution. It doesn't sound like the items you desire are likely to be terribly important to him, so he probably will give them up once he has a chance to deal with the loss of your mother.
On the other hand, will contests are very expensive to litigate and often have little chance of success. From your description, I know of no grounds for contesting the will. As for a list that your mother may have written, it is probably not enforceable. If the list was created before the will, then it is probably invalid since most wills expressly revoke prior wills. If the list was created after the execution of the will, then it is entirely precratory (meaning the executor can choose whether or not to follow it).
Given the interstate issues involved here and no information that would make me question the validity of the will, I would give a will contest small liklihood of doing anything other than causing anger and actually reducing the chance that the husband will give you the personal items you are seeking.
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