Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Just so I get this straight - a father ran a sole proprietorship and he has passed, leaving a widow and two brothers. Are the brothers the children of the father and widow? Or just one of them? Did father have a will? If so, what did the will say regarding the business tools/equipment and land?

Are there any kind of written agreements? Who owns the tools/equipment? If they are owned by the brother who has left, I don't see a problem. If they were owned by the father, then they are part of the father's estate. If father did not make a will, then the tools and equipment will pass via the intestacy law. Has an estate been probated? Is the widow the personal representative?

Those tools and equipment, if they are part of the estate, will have to be inventoried and appraised by the personal representative and they should not be disposed of. As far as rent, who owns the land? If the land has now passed to the widow, she can do what she wants with it including the charge of any rent. Just because one brother paid taxes does not give him any rights. Any verbal agreements that the brothers had with the father are now over. Regarding father's verbal gift, verbal gifts are very hard to prove where a deceased has died. What evidence, other than father's verbal statements, does the brother have to prove it? Most states have what are called "Dead Man's Statutes" and prohibit a living person from testifying about what a dead person said. See 42 Pa.C.S.A. � 5930, which says:

Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, in any civil action or proceeding, where any party to a thing or contract in action is dead, or has been adjudged a lunatic and his right thereto or therein has passed, either by his own act or by the act of the law, to a party on the record who represents his interest in the subject in controversy, neither any surviving or remaining party to such thing or contract, nor any other person whose interest shall be adverse to the said right of such deceased or lunatic party, shall be a competent witness to any matter occurring before the death of said party or the adjudication of his lunacy, unless the action or proceeding is by or against the surviving or remaining partners, joint promisors or joint promisees, of such deceased or lunatic party, and the matter occurred between such surviving or remaining partners, joint promisors or joint promisees and the other party on the record, or between such surviving or remaining partners, promisors or promisees and the person having an interest adverse to them, in which case any person may testify to such matters; or, unless the action is a possessory action against several defendants, and one or more of said defendants disclaims of record any title to the premises in controversy at the time the suit was brought and also pays into court the costs accrued at the time of his disclaimer, or gives security therefor as the court in its discretion may direct, in which case such disclaiming defendant shall be a fully competent witness; or, unless the issue or inquiry be devisavit vel non, or be any other issue or inquiry respecting the property of a deceased owner, and the controversy is between parties respectively claiming such property by devolution on the death of such owner, in which case all persons shall be fully competent witnesses.

The brother can always object to any distribution of the tools that belong to him. In such case, I urge the brother to get a lawyer, preferably one who does probate litigation and who is familiar with the operation of PA's Dead Man rule..