Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

You will need a lawyer to help you. If you were named as Executor in the will, the witnesses will have to go to the Office of the Register of Wills with you to file the will. You will have to file a legal action to get the property back from your brother. Proving that a transfer of the property was not valid because of the legal capacity of your father is not an easy matter. The fact that your father refused treatment does not necessarily mean that he lacked capacity.

The will does not become invalid because property was removed from the estate, but if the transfer is held to be valid, there are probably few or no assets in the estate to pay debts. Your paying the funeral expenses is a debt of your father's estate. By taking on the responsibility for administering the will, you will also have to find a way to pay the other debts, but you do not have to use your own assets to do so.

An estates lawyer in your area would be able to sort through the issues and advise what your options are.

THIS RESPONSE IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE, SINCE I DO NOT HAVE ALL OF THE INFORMATION THAT WOULD BE REQUIRED, AND I DO NOT HAVE A REPRESENTATION AGREEMENT WITH YOU.

* If the answers to your question confirm that you have a valid issue or worthwhile claim, your next step should almost always be to establish a dialog with a lawyer who can provide specific advice to you. Contact a lawyer in your county or township.

* Another reason for contacting a lawyer is that it is often impossible to give a good answer in the Internet Q&A format without having more information. The unique circumstances of your situation and things that you may not have thought to mention in your question may completely change the answer. If you want to be sure that you have a complete answer to your question and an understanding of what that answer means, establish a connection with a lawyer who practices in the area of your concern.

You have several problems. First, your brother's will is not notarized and I do not know if the will is valid or not. I don't know who "told" you anything, but if it was not competent advice from a probate attorney then I would not rely upon it. While friends and relatives can mean well, their situation is different from your situation. You would not get medical advice from a plumber so don't get legal advice from a non-lawyer.

Have a probate attorney review the will to determine its validity. If it is a valid will, does it leave any assets to you? Was your brother mentally competent at the time he made the will?

Assuming that everything is ok with the will and the will appoints you as executor, you need to probate the will. As noted by Attorney Jacobson, funeral expenses are the responsibility of the estatate, not some other person. You will need to find a way to pay for the bills from the assets of the estate.

Regarding your brother's conveyance of his property, anyone can make a will and then convey away property devised in that will. If that happens, the legal term of that is ademption. The problem here is that there is a question in your mind as to whether your brother was mentally competent to do that. Mere refusal of treatment is not automatic proof of mental incompetence. I don't know enough about what disease your brother suffered from, but if it was something like cancer, that in and of itiself doesn't make somebody incompetent unless the disease affected the brain.

Incompetence can only be established by your brother's physicans and through any psychiatric evaluation that your brother may have undergone while he was still alive. The testimony of those who knew your brother during his last months will also be relevant.

Litigation is neither quick nor cheap and you are going to have to make sure that the value of the property is well worth a lawsuit. And you generally may not be able to recover counsel fees for something like this which means that you are going to have to front the costs of litigation.

Assuming that you do not have grounds to rescind the conveyance of property, do you have a written agreement whereby the individual who acquired your brother's property agreed to pay fair market value for the property which would cover the taxes and funeral expenses? This is not usually found in a will so I have questions about that and the validity of the document. If you have some written agreement, then you can sue to enforce the terms of that agreement. If you do not have a written agreement, then you are going to be fighting an uphill battle unless you have some means to prove the substance of the agreement without your brother's testimony. "My brother told me thus and such" is not going to cut it. States have what are called "dead man's statutes." I don't want to get into the complexities of that but in some cases, conversations with people who are now deceased in which someone stands to benefit are not generally admissible although there are some exceptions. You will need to discuss this with a probate litigation attorney if this is all that you have to prove liability.

The best advice is that you need to see a probate litigation attorney in the counsty/state where your brother resided at the time of his death. You need to allow the attorney to review the "will" to determine its validity. If its not valid, then you would still inherit (unless your brother had a wife, children or parents who were living) along with any other siblings. You will still need to be appointed as the personal representative of your brother's estate whether the will is valid or not. Only then can you challenge the conveyance of property by your brother and you need to speak with the attorney as to the costs and the problems of proving mental incompetence of your brother. Ask the attorney about the dead man's statutes. If you cannot challenge the conveyance, then see about enforcing the terms of any other written document to get this person to pay fair market value for the property.