Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
my brother is the executor for mom's estate. He did not include the first codicil which was signed and dated every year along with two other later codicils, every year until her death. this ommitted codicil grants me 33,000 to balance out his early inheritence. The notice of order and judgement was already filed but I wasn't informed of missing codicil until I saw the final judgement hearing notice last week. can he omit this important first codicil? How do I bring it to the attention of the judge?
1 Answer from Attorneys
I assume you mean the order of distribution and the closing of the estate.First, find out from your brother why the codicil was not included and what he intends to do about that. He could simply decline to accept $33,000 from the estate and let you take it. If he was repressented by an attorney also try to speak to that attorney [e-mail and leave a calm voice mesage if he will not speak with you].
If that does not work, second, go down to the court where the matter was heard and read through the entire file to see if there were other errors or information as to the codicil.
Third, file a petition under Code of Civil Procedure 473 (b) to set aside the judgment; is must be done withi a reasonable period of time but you want it done ASAP. That petition is not that difficult to do. If you feel you need an attorney to handle it, I am semi-retired so only charge $150 per hour and might be able to do the entire matter, including court appearance, within 5-6 hours.
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