Brockelman v. Western Surety Co.

11 Mass. L. Rptr. 631
CourtMassachusetts Superior Court
DecidedJune 6, 2000
DocketNo. CV950258
StatusPublished

This text of 11 Mass. L. Rptr. 631 (Brockelman v. Western Surety Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Superior Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brockelman v. Western Surety Co., 11 Mass. L. Rptr. 631 (Mass. Ct. App. 2000).

Opinion

Josephson, J.

This is an action by defendant Western Surety Co. (“Western Surety”) against plaintiffs Michael D. Brockelman (“Brockelman”), Successor Administrator of the Estate of Paul H. Kaltsas, and John J. Moynihan, First Justice of the Worcester Probate and Family Court Department.4 The plaintiffs allege that defendant Lefcothea Kaltsas (“Kaltsas”), individually and as Former Administratrix of the Estate of Paul H. Kaltsas, breached her fiduciary duty to the estate of the late Paul H. Kaltsas (“decedent”) (Count I); Kaltsas exercised intentional and wrongful acts of conversion and misappropriation over the decedent’s estate to which she had no right of possession (Count II); Kaltsas unreasonably and improperly used, abused, mismanaged, and wasted the property in the decedent’s estate (Count III); defendant Western Surely is liable on its bond to the decedent’s estate for Kaltsas’ breaches of fiduciary duty relative to her appointment as administratrix of the estate (Count IV); Western Surety is liable on its bond to the decedent’s estate for Kaltsas’ intentional and wrongful acts of conversion and misappropriation (Count V); and Western Surety is liable on its bond for Kaltsas’ unreasonable and improper use, abuse, mismanagement, and waste of the real property in the decedent’s estate (Count VI). Defendant Western Surety has moved for summary judgment on Counts IV, V and VI. The plaintiffs oppose the defendant’s motion and have made a cross-motion for summary judgment. Western Surety opposes the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment. For the following reasons, the defendant’s motion for summary judgment is ALLOWED in part and DENIED in part, and the plaintiffs’ cross-motion for summary judgment is DENIED.

BACKGROUND

On November 9, 1980, the decedent, a domiciliary of Greece, died testate. He left an “usufruct” (life estate) for his wife, Kaltsas, with his three children as “naked owners” (remaindermen). The decedent’s estate consisted of shares of stocks of Massachusetts corporations, funds in several Massachusetts bank accounts totaling $883.00, coins with a total value under $200 in a safe deposit box, and real estate in Worcester County (the Massachusetts ancillary estate); stocks, bonds, and real estate in Greece (the domiciliary estate); real estate in Spain; and shares of stocks of New York corporations and funds in a bank account in New York.

In 1981, Kaltsas was appointed administratrix with the will annexed of the ancillary estate in Worcester Probate Court. Kaltsas exercised dominion and control over the decedent’s assets outside Massachusetts, and she also acted as domiciliary executrix.5

In June 1981, Kaltsas filed an inventory listing the assets within the ancillary estate in Massachusetts, namely shares of stocks of Massachusetts corporations, real estate, and coins of nominal value.6 The stocks from the Massachusetts corporations were sold by agreement of the usufruct and naked owners for $250,000. Kaltsas v. Kaltsas, 22 Mass.App.Ct. 689, 690 n.2, rev. denied, 398 Mass. 1105 (1986). These proceeds, as well as proceeds from the sale of corporate stock not within the Massachusetts ancillary estate, were placed in accounts in Kaltsas’ name individually and not as administratrix of the ancillary estate.

On February 24, 1983, one of the remaindermen received a restraining order precluding Kaltsas from drawing on and/or transferring assets both within and from outside the ancillary administration of Massachusetts. This order was modified on March 24, 1983, requiring Kaltsas to transfer estate assets in her personal account to assets held by her as an ad-ministratrix. She was also ordered to render a proper accounting of the Massachusetts ancillary estate’s [632]*632assets and to file a corporate surety bond for $500,000.7 On April 12, 1983, the court denied Kaltsas’ motion to dismiss the restraining order and its modification.

On October 6, 1983, Kaltsas, as ancillary ad-ministratrix, received a bond for the penal sum of $500,000 from Western Surety for the ancillary estate. On or about October 6, 1983, Kaltsas filed an accounting of the decedent’s estate for the period of November 9, 1980, through September 30, 1983.

On February 1, 1984, the Probate Court vacated the restraining orders of February 1983 and March 1983. The court found that the usufruct and all the naked owners had agreed to the sale of the stock from the Massachusetts corporations for $250,000. On that same day, the court enjoined the use of the proceeds from the sale of stocks from the Massachusetts corporations, declaring that the $250,000.00 realized from the sale be deposited into the decedent’s estate and that the principal sum remain unaltered unless otherwise ordered by the court, or with the assent of Kaltsas and all the beneficiaries.

In 1986, the Appeals Court determined that the Massachusetts real estate and assets from the sale of the stock from Massachusetts corporations were subject to ancillary administration in Massachusetts, and that the proceeds from that stock sale were to be held in an account in Kaltsas’ name as ancillary ad-ministratrix. Kaltsas, 22 Mass.App.Ct. at 690 n.2, 691.

On May 26, 1987, the Probate Court issued a temporary restraining order enjoining the Bank of Boston from distributing any funds it held in the name of Lefcothea Kaltsas individually and/or as ad-ministratrix with the will annexed of the decedent’s estate. In September 1987, the Probate Court denied Kaltsas’ motion to revoke the February 1984 restraint on the assets derived from the sale of Massachusetts shares. In November 1987, Kaltsas filed federal and state estate tax returns for the decedent’s estate, in February 1988 she filed Massachusetts estate taxes, and in March 1988 Kaltsas filed the decedent’s federal income tax return. On June 5, 1989, Kaltsas moved to have the funds released from her account as ad-ministratrix of the estate to pay the federal and state estate taxes. On July 20, 1989, the Probate Court denied her motion.

On October 23, 1989, the Probate Court modified its orders to release funds from Kaltsas’ account as administratrix of the estate to pay the state and federal estate taxes.

On July 17, 1990, the Probate Court, after finding that Kaltsas deposited the proceeds from the sale of the stock from Massachusetts and non-Massachusetts corporations into Massachusetts bank accounts and invested the liquidated assets in the Commonwealth, removed Kaltsas as administrator of the decedent’s estate and appointed Brockelman as successor administrator.

DISCUSSION

A. Standard of Review

Summary judgment is appropriate when no material facts are in dispute and the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Highlands Ins. Co. v. Aerovox, Inc., 424 Mass. 226, 232 (1997); Cassesso v. Commissioner of Correction, 390 Mass. 419, 422 (1983); Community Nat’l Bank v. Dawes, 369 Mass. 550, 553 (1976); Mass.R.Civ.P. 56(b). Courts may consider pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories, admissions on file, and affidavits. Community Nat’l Bank, 369 Mass. at 553.

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Bluebook (online)
11 Mass. L. Rptr. 631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brockelman-v-western-surety-co-masssuperct-2000.