Legal Question in Administrative Law in Virginia
Contested Administrator
My son died last year as a passenger in a car accident. He was 22. He had a rocky relationship with a woman and had two children with her; they were not married. The woman lived in a different state than my son and I. My son lived with me his entire life. I took care of all of the funeral arrangements and getting his estate in order. A few weeks after his death, I filed for administrator of the estate in order to look out for my two grandchildren. Because the mother did not live in the same state, she did not immediately qualify to be administrator, but when she became eligible she contested me being administrator. She signed an affidavit accusing me of many actions I did not do and I have proof. I feel that I am the most appropriate person to be administrator, to take care of business such as setting with the insurance company, in my son's best interest for his two minor children, my grandchildren. I provided for my son his entire life and he lived with me. I would like to know what is necessary to remove an administrator and also if you believe the woman can argue that she is the mother of the children and so she should be administrator and what you believe to be the best legal action.
Thank You.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Contested Administrator
There are two completely different roles here. Administrator (executor) of the estate only concerns your son's property. It is true, of course, that you would naturally administer his property for the benefit of his children, that is not the same thing as being the guardian of the children or acting in a parental capacity.
As a result, the fact his girlfriend is the mother of the children should have absolutely nothing to do with you qualifying as administrator. You being administrator will not restrict her parental role as mother of the children.
I assume that there was no will. As a result, the children inherit your son's property. His girlfriend DOES NOT. And you don't either. If that is true,then your obligation as administrator is to provide his property for the benefit of the children. You would be under a legal duty to make sure that all of the money is used for the benefit of the children.
However, that does not give the girlfriend any basis to be administrator. Again, one of the reasons is that being administrator is not the same as having parental responsibility over the children. Therefore, she cannot complaint that she is not administrator because it makes no difference to her role as mother. Because she is not related to your son in any way, not even by marriage, she has no basis to ask to be administrator, certainly not over his mother.
It is generally very hard to remove an administrator. It would require a hearing at which she would have to actually prove all of these things she is claiming, not just make accusations.
Now, there may be a difficulty, though. If your son had a will taht set up a "trust" to pay for the childern's expenses over many years you would have the authority to withold money until you believed it would be well spent for the children's welfare. However, if yuor son died without a will, there is probably no legal basis for you holding back any of the money. Once everything is in order you will probably need to give it to the children all at once. I'm not sure about this. That requires some careful thought.
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