Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia
My Step Mother died on Dec. 20, 2009. When she died she owned 4 houses, 2 connecting commercial buildings, and a piece of land. According to the will, she owed money on the house she lived in and the commercial buildings. She left me one of the houses, my son $15,000, and my brother everything else plus executorship. He is her natural child. The will stipulated the money be paid to my as soon as possible after her death. If something had to be sold in order to pay him the money, the executor had up to 6 months to liquidate something. At this point, he sold one of the houses owner financed getting an unknown sum of money as down payment. He also sold property that had been leased for several years to a billboard company, This property was part of the land the house he sold was on. According to him the commercial property is in forclosure. I have not gotten ownership of the house she left me, and my son has not gotten his money. We would like to sue him in order for the will to be settled, however upon reading the will again closer, it also says that if he dies, fails to quailfy or having qualified thereafter for any reason shall cease to act that she appointed his son and daughter to serve as first alternate executors. Does that mean if we do sue him that his son and daughter will become executor? Which means he still is in charge of everything. The son is 19 and the daughter is 23 and still live with him going to college. Another twist is that he just lost his job and is currently unemployeed.
2 Answers from Attorneys
No one here has read the wil to know the details but no decent attorney would have drafted a will that had deadlines for selling real estate within 6 months. That's impossible in good times and obviously impossible now in that it can take months just to get to apoint where you can list property for sale. It also sounds like the estate has significant debt, all of which must be paid before you get paid.
Just to be sure everything is being done right, see a lawyer of your own. But it may be okay, and you may also end up with less than you expected.
In answer to your question, if you sue your brother, it means nothing. He is the executor of the estate until he dies, resigns or is removed by the court. The court will only remove him if he is not doing his job properly or has screwed up the administration of your step-mother's estate.
I am sure that you are aware of the dire state of the economy. Depending on the location of the property and its condition, it could take much more than 6 months to sell. The problem is that if money is owed on it, somebody needs to be paying the mortgage or the lender will foreclose. Generally, the heirs are responsible and will inherit the land subject to the mortgage.
The rule is that all creditors are paid BEFORE the heirs get anything. If there is not enough money to pay the bills, then the bills get paid in order of priority as per state law. If there is enough money to pay the bills but not enough money to give to the heirs as per the will, then gifts are "adeemed" in order of priority as per state law as well.
An attorney would need to review the exact language in the will and would need to know what your brother has done in terms of administering the estate. I suggest that you go to the probate court in the county/state where your mother resided just prior to her death and make a copy of the estate file if you have not done so already. You want a copy of the will, letters, notice to creditors, inventory and accounting.
Take the documents and pay a probate lawyer for 30-60 minutes of his/her time to review these documents and advise you: (1) whether the estate is being handled properly; (2) who will take over if your brother resigns or is removed; (3) whether its cost effective for you to seek removal of your brother or otherwise object; (4) advise as to what you and your son will inherit after the bills are paid; and (5) maybe see how much it will cost for the lawyer to write a letter and get things moving along.
Depending on the answers, if there are too many debts in the estate and you and your son are not going to get anything or very little, then you may not want to do anything.
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