Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

I need some help from a legal standpoint about money my father gave me before he died.

I don�t want to make this a long drawn out story so bear in mind there are events I�m skimming over in order to get to my main concern.

My Mother died two years ago leaving my father home alone in the house we grew up in, at that time he was 87 years old but in very good physical condition, still cutting his own grass, driving and shopping.

During the next two years his health would deteriorate, he lost vision in his left eye and his right eye would constantly water causing his vision to be blurred most of the time, in the last months of his life he was having trouble going to the bathroom.

My wife and I would visit him as often as possible, every Sunday morning we would take him out for breakfast and spend the day with him, every Tuesday my wife would take him food shopping and any where else he wanted to go (haircut, mall). She would set up his refrigerator with meals for the week, during this time they went to the bank and he gave my wife the power to control his accounts online, he couldn�t write checks or address the envelopes any more, he was missing making payments because he just didn�t care anymore. So now he would call when ever he got a bill in the mail, tell my wife who and how much, she would go online and make the payment.

At this time he was planning his death, we didn�t know his plans, everything seemed ok. He took a surprise trip to Florida in august to visit with my sister and my brother who both live there. When he returned home he asked my wife during her weekly visit to take him to the bank, he cashed out a seven thousand dollar cd , My wife questioned him on this, he didn�t need it, his pension check of nineteen hundred dollars per month is automatically deposited each month, and my wife would give a thousand dollars cash on the first of each month so he wouldn�t be cash poor, she had just given him his thousand Sept 1st plus he still had four hundred left over from the previous month, He put six thousand in an envelope and gave it to my wife that day before she left, she tried to refuse it but he insisted, saying he would get it as he needed it , told her to take this home and out in a drawer. On Sept 19th at eleven AM my father went into the basement , set up a picture of my Mother and he Last will on the ping-pong table, wrapped my mothers favorite blue blanket around himself, sat down in a old school desk that was there and shot himself.

This totally took me by surprise, I had just spoken to him on the phone the day before and he never let on what he was planning. He left my sister and he husband (from PA) as the executors of his will and I told them about the six grand he gave me, I gave it to them, feeling it was still his money. As time has gone by I realize now he wanted me to have that money, after talking with my sister in Florida she told me that during his visit there he wanted to make sure both she and my brother were ok financially and that he mentioned to her how he was worried about me. I attempted to get the money returned but both my sister and her husband insist it is part of the estate. What if he had sent that money to his sister in California or donated it to the Salvation army, would they be contacting them asking for the money to be returned because it�s part of the estate. Also as I mentioned earlier, the CD was for seven thousand, he gave me six, where is the other thousand, no one knows.

Well I didn�t do very well at making the long story short. What I need to know from someone with legal expertise is do I have a right to the money?, do I have a case? Or should I just let it go.


Asked on 3/02/12, 2:58 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Rachel Hunter

What ifs are not relevant at this point. The facts are that your father did not give money to the Salvation Army or anyone else so it does not matter what would have happened if he did,

Despite your lengthy narrative, you don't provide any relevant details - like whether an estate was probated, when your father died or where he resided at the time of his death.

Since you took the position initially that this money was part of your father's estate then the funds will be disbursed as per your father's will, which means that after the debts are paid, the heirs will get whatever is left. If you are one of the stated beneficiaries, then you will inherit your share when the property was distributed.

You have no written evidence of the monetary gift by your father and you will have a very difficult time proving (by evidence other than what your father did or said) that the $6,000 was to be a gift. I don't think you have a case or a right to demand the money at this point. You might have had more of an argument had you kept the money and said nothing to the executors about it. But this is just my opinion. You are welcome to get another.

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Answered on 3/02/12, 3:22 pm


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