Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Connecticut
Hello. I have a difficult situation unfolding. My father passed away about a week ago. He was in the process of divorcing his wife. They have been involved in legal battles for the past year and a half. She left him and abandoned the residence. She filed for divorce. Now that he has passed, she is trying to get her hands on anything and everything he has left (which is not much, really). She claims "I'm still his wife". She has even gone so far as to break into the residence she no longer lives and has rummaged through his things.
I don't know what to do. I know she has plans on trying to become the executor of his estate. I think I should fight this and have a good chance of winning since his last letter instructed I am to be in charge of everything.
Can I press charges for her going into his residence? What are my next steps here?
1 Answer from Attorneys
You didn't mention whether your father has a divorce attorney.
You need to go immediately to the probate court in the town where your father had his primary residence and open an estate. You will want to ask the probate court to freeze all of his assets, issue an order preventing his wife from entering the residence, etc. A probate judge is not going to order that she be executor of his estate because she was estranged. You may be appointed, or, in the alternative, a neutral person, because he was going through a divorce.
Since your father passed during the divorce proceeding, I believe that the probate court would take over as the court to issue relief, once you open an estate. ( I would think that the divorce court loses jurisdiction since your father passed)
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