Estate of Stevenson

38 Pa. D. & C.5th 1
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedFebruary 20, 2014
DocketNo. 302
StatusPublished

This text of 38 Pa. D. & C.5th 1 (Estate of Stevenson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Stevenson, 38 Pa. D. & C.5th 1 (Pa. Super. Ct. 2014).

Opinion

O’KEEFE, J,

— On April 22, 2013, Raquel Stevenson, mother of Desiree Stevenson (decedent) and the administratrix of her estate (appellee), [2]*2filed a motion to approve a wrongful death and survival action naming herself as the only beneficiary of decedent’s estate. Jesse Evans, decedent’s father, (appellant) filed an answer on May 13, 2013, claiming that he was also a beneficiary of decedent’s estate. After a full evidentiary hearing on August 19, 2013, as well as written briefs submitted by both parties, on November 25, 2013, this court granted appellee’s motion with the allocations she requested. On December 3,2013, appellant filed a motion for reconsideration that was denied on December 13, 2013. Appellant now appeals the November 25, 2013, order granting appellee’s wrongful death/survival action motion.

Facts and Procedural History

The decedent died on March 9, 2009, at the age of 10, from alleged medical malpractice stemming from the failure of Albert Einstein Medical Center staff to diagnose and treat her viral myocarditis (heart infection). Decedent presented to the hospital with vital signs consistent with a serious heart problem but was left waiting in the emergency room for over an hour after being seen by the attending physician. After being placed on a monitor and having an IV started, lidocaine was ordered but was not administered for another half-hour. After decedent was finally given the lidocaine, she coded five minutes later and died after attempts at CPR were unsuccessful.

After the lawsuit was filed, appellee filed for bankruptcy. The Bankruptcy Trustee filed a petition to have Teresa Colleran-Quinn, Esquire, appointed to prosecute the litigation and she obtained a $1.9 million settlement.

Appellee claims that she is the only wrongful death beneficiary because appellant, decedent’s father, was never involved in decedent’s life. Appellant responded in [3]*3his answer that appellee told him that decedent was not his child. Appellee claims that appellant denied paternity.

Legal Analysis

The following standard of review applies to the orphans’ court:

In reviewing the orphans’ court’s findings, our task is to ensure that the record is free from legal error and to determine if the orphans’ court’s findings are supported by competent and adequate evidence and are not predicated upon capricious disbelief of competent and credible evidence.
When the trial court has come to a conclusion through the exercise of its discretion, the party complaining on appeal has a heavy burden. Paden v. Baker Concrete Construction, Inc., 540 Pa. 409, 412, 658 A.2d 341, 343 (1995). “It is not sufficient to persuade the appellate court that it might have reached a different conclusion if, in the first place, charged with the duty imposed on the court below; it is necessary to go further and show an abuse of the discretionary power.” Id. “An abuse of discretion is not merely an error of judgment, but if in reaching a conclusion the law is overridden or misapplied, or the judgment exercised is manifestly unreasonable, or the result of partiality, prejudice, bias or ill-will, as shown by the evidence [of] record, discretion is abused.” Id. A conclusion or judgment constitutes an abuse of discretion if it is so lacking in support as to be clearly erroneous. Id.
[...]
We will reverse any decree based on “palpably wrong or clearly inapplicable” rules of law. Horner by Peoples National Bank of Central Pennsylvania v. Horner, [4]*4719 A.2d 1101, 1103 (Pa. Super. 1998). Moreover, we are not bound by the chancellor’s findings of fact if there has been an abuse of discretion, a capricious disregard of evidence, or a lack of evidentiary support on the record. Id. If the lack of evidentiaiy support is apparent, “reviewing tribunals have the power to draw their own inferences and make their own deductions from facts and conclusions of law.” Id. (quoting Union Trust Company of New Castle v. Cwynar, 388 Pa. 644, 649, 131 A.2d 133, 135 (1957)). Nevertheless, we will not lightly find reversible error and will reverse an orphans’ court decree only if the orphans’ court applied an incorrect rule of law or reached its decision on the basis of factual conclusions unsupported by the record. Estate of Harrison, 745 A.2d at 681.

In re Paxson Trust I, 893 A.2d 99, 112-113 (Pa. Super. 2006).

The instant dispute involves whether decedent’s father is entitled to receive a share of decedent’s estate or, as appellee asserts, is ineligible due to forfeiture under 20 Pa.C.S.A. §2106(b)(l). The relevant portion of the forfeiture statute reads as follows:

(b) Parent’s share. Any parent who, for one year or upwards previous to the death of the parent’s minor or dependent child, has:
(1) failed to perform the duty to support the minor or dependent child or who, for one year, has deserted the minor or dependent child...shall have no right or interest under this chapter in the real or personal estate of the minor or dependent child.

20 Pa.C.S.A. §2106(b). This statute is in place to prevent someone who has failed to live up to his or her responsibilities as a parent from gaining a “windfall” from [5]*5the child’s death. In re: Kistner, 858 A.2d. 1226, 1229. Therefore, in order to successfully prove forfeiture, the child must have been a minor or dependent child at the time of their death and the potentially forfeiting parent, in the last year of the child’s life, must have owed a duty to support and either failed to perform the duty to support the child or deserted the child.

The seminal opinion in this matter was provided by the Pennsylvania Superior Court in In re Estate of Teaschenko, 574 A.2d 649 (Pa. Super. 1990). The Teaschenko court held that the party alleging forfeiture has the burden of producing evidence sufficient to establish a prima facie case of forfeiture. Id. at 651. Further, “...the parent must completely fail to perform any duty of support before a court will find á forfeiture under this statute.” Id. at 651-652. Finally, the court defined willfully for the purposes of the forfeiture statute as “...the parent is aware of the duty to support, has the capacity to perform that duty, and makes no attempt to do so.” Id. at 652.

At the start of the July 23, 2013, evidentiary hearing, the parties stipulated to the first two requirements; that is, they agreed that decedent was a minor and that appellant owed decedent a duty to support her. (N.T. Aug. 19, 2013, 3:9-19). They did not agree that appellant did not support decedent in the last year of her life or that the lack of support was willful. Id.

Duty to Support

In his answer to the motion for approval and, by his own testimony, appellant admitted that he had failed to provide “any” duty of support to decedent in the last year of her life.

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Related

Horner v. Horner
719 A.2d 1101 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1998)
Paden v. Baker Concrete Construction, Inc.
658 A.2d 341 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1995)
In Re Paxson Trust I
893 A.2d 99 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2006)
In Re Estate of Teaschenko
574 A.2d 649 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1990)
Union Trust Co. of New Castle v. Cwynar
131 A.2d 133 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1957)
In re Kistner
858 A.2d 1226 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 2004)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
38 Pa. D. & C.5th 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-stevenson-pactcomplphilad-2014.