Probate & Trust Law Section Conference Manual ... - Minnesota CLE

questions before the court were the following: (1) Did the district court
err in ordering interest accrue under Minn. Stat. § 549.09 on the lake home
debt from the date of the decedent’s death; and (2) Did the district court
err in aggregating the Voyager account debts for purposes of the $50,000
threshold in Minn. Stat. § 549.09. As to the first question, under Minn.
Stat. § 549.09, interest is to begin accruing at the earliest of (1) the
commencement of the action; (2) a demand for arbitration; and (3) the
time of written notice of the claim. Because there was no demand or
written notice of the claim, the appeals court concluded that interest
should begin to occur at the commencement of the action –which was the
time the petition for probate of decedent’s will was presented. As to the
second question, the sons argued that because the $73,592 judgment
relating to the cash transfers to the bank account were actually comprised
of several transactions, each of which were less than $50,000, so the
$50,000 threshold rate shouldn’t apply, but rather the rate applicable to
each transfer. The appeals court rejected this argument as well. It held
that because the court referred to the total $73,592 as the judgment in
favor of the estate, and that judgment was for the total amount, and not the
three separate transactions. The court went onto discuss that the district
court essentially has the discretion to refer to the judgments in the manner
it deems advisable, and the reference in this case was not an abuse of
discretion.
C. Establishing Lost Will
1. Smith v. DeParry, 86 So.3d 1228 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 2012). Because
personal representatives could be held personally liable for incorrect
distribution of funds under lost codicil they did not qualify as
disinterested witnesses under Florida’s lost wills statute. Decedent’s
attorney had prepared his estate planning documents for several years and
was appointed along with another individual as personal representatives of
decedent’s estate. Under an apparent codicil to decedent’s will which had
been lost, the personal representatives transferred $40,000 from decedent’s
estate to a trust for the care of his dogs (the “pet trust”). One of the
personal representatives was the trustee of the pet trust. The personal
representatives transferred the money before filing a petition to establish
the lost codicil. In establishing the lost codicil, the copy proffered was a
printed version of the draft on the personal representative-attorney’s
computer system, and the witnesses who testified included the personal
representatives, personal representative-attorney’s assistant who printed
out the codicil but was not present at the purported execution, and a
witness who testified that she did not read the document signed by
decedent at the purported execution. The probate court rejected the
petition to establish the lost codicil, and on appeal two questions were
before the appeals court. First, the appeals court considered whether a
printout of a draft of the codicil from a computer was a sufficient copy
under the lost-wills statute. It held that it was. Second, the court
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