Estate of Zeevering

78 A.3d 1106, 2013 Pa. Super. 260, 2013 WL 5366989, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2681
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 26, 2013
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 78 A.3d 1106 (Estate of Zeevering) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Estate of Zeevering, 78 A.3d 1106, 2013 Pa. Super. 260, 2013 WL 5366989, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2681 (Pa. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION BY

SHOGAN, J.:

Appellant, Wayne Zeevering, son of the late George Zeevering, appeals from the final decree entered on January 4, 2013 that denied Appellant’s exceptions to the November 7, 2012 decree distributing George Zeevering’s estate.1 After careful consideration, we affirm.

The relevant facts of this matter were aptly set forth by the orphans’ court as follows:

1. George Zeevering died on August 3, 2011.
2. Prior to his death, George Zeevering executed his Last Will and Testament on March 6, 2011, a Will which he drafted and executed without the advice of counsel.
3. George Zeevering was survived by the following five children: Kathleen Ar-chacki, Laura Bonner, Diane Mar[c]ks, Jennifer Rios, and [Appellant].
4. The Last Will and Testament of the decedent makes two specific bequests.
5. The specific bequests included a red pick-up truck and a summer property in Deal Island, Md.
6. The specific bequest of real estate is a nullity because title was held as joint tenants with right of survivorship between George Zeevering and [Appellant].
7. The only specific asset passing under the Last Will and Testament of George Zeevering is a red pick-up truck.
8. The red pickup truck passed by specific bequest to Diane Marks.
9. The will also reads “I direct that my just debts, funeral expenses of his last illness to be paid from my estate,” and
10. “The failure of this will to provide any distribution to my children, Laura Bonner, Kathleen Archacki, and Jennifer Rios, is intentional.”
11. The net residuary estate of the decedent consists of approximately $217,000 in cash.
12. There is no residuary clause in decedent’s Last Will and Testament.

Orphans’ Court Opinion, 2/13/13, at 1-2.

On May 23, 2012, the executrix of George Zeevering’s estate filed a final accounting and statement of proposed distribution that would distribute the residue of the estate to all five of George Zeevering’s children. Appellant filed objections to the proposed distribution asserting that [1108]*1108George Zeevering’s will specifically excluded his children Laura Bonner, Kathleen Archacki, and Jennifer Rios and that they should not receive any part of the residue of George Zeevering’s estate. Appellant’s objections were denied by decree entered November 7, 2012, which directed that the residue of the estate would be distributed under Pennsylvania’s intestacy laws because the will contained no residuary clause. Appellant filed exceptions to the November 7, 2012 decree, and Appellant’s exceptions were denied by decree entered on January 4, 2018. On January 24, 2013, Appellant filed a timely appeal.

On appeal, Appellant raises the following issue for this Court’s consideration:

I. Should a partial intestacy be ordered during probate of a testator’s will, made without legal counsel, when doing so would include beneficiaries that the testator specifically directed should not share in his estate?

Appellant’s Brief at 3 (full capitalization omitted).

“Our standard of review of an orphans’ court’s decision is deferential.” In re Estate of Strahsmeier, 54 A.3d 359, 362 (Pa.Super.2012). When reviewing an orphans’ court decree, this Court must determine whether the record is free from legal error and whether the orphans’ court’s findings are supported by the record. Id. at 362-363. Because the orphans’ court sits as the finder of fact, it determines the credibility of the witnesses and, on review, this Court will not reverse its credibility determinations absent an abuse of discretion. Id. at 363. However, this Court is not bound to give the same deference to the orphans’ court conclusions of law. Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted). Where the rules of law on which the orphans’ court relied are palpably wrong or clearly inapplicable, we will reverse the court’s decree. Id. (quotation marks and citation omitted). Moreover, we point out that an abuse of discretion is not merely an error of judgment. However, if in reaching a conclusion, the court overrides or misapplies the law, or the judgment exercised is shown by the record to be manifestly unreasonable or the product of partiality, prejudice, bias, or ill will, discretion has been abused. Id. (citation omitted).

Decades ago, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court explained the terms “specific bequest” and “residue”:

[ W]e have defined a specific bequest as a gift by will of a specific article or part of the testator’s estate, which is identified and distinguished from all other things of the same kind, and which may be satisfied only b[y] delivery of the particular thing. In contrast, we have defined the residue of [an] estate as whatever is not specifically devised or bequeathed[.] In all cases, the test must be the testator’s intent to dispose of a residue. Since no particular language is necessary to convey the residuary estate, words in any clause sufficiently broad to pass a general residue are not usually held to be restricted by association with other words of narrower import or by added attempts at enumeration.

In re Woolett’s Estate, 461 Pa. 703, 337 A.2d 837, 839-840 (1975) (internal citations and quotation marks omitted). An intestate estate is defined as follows:

Intestate estate
(a) General rule. — All or any part of the estate of a decedent not effectively disposed of by will or otherwise passes to his heirs as prescribed in this chapter, except as modified by the decedent’s will.
(b) Modification by decedent’s will.— A decedent by will may expressly exclude or limit the right of an individual or class to succeed to property of the [1109]*1109decedent passing by intestate succession. If that individual or a member of that class survives the decedent, the share of the decedent’s intestate estate to which the individual or class would have succeeded passes as if that individual or each member of that class had disclaimed his intestate share.

20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2101.

Here, Appellant is challenging the orphans’ court’s application of intestacy law to the residue of George Zeevering’s estate. As noted above, George Zeevering’s will contained specific bequests to two of his children and specifically omitted his three other children from the will. However, the will contained no direction as to the distribution of any residue. The record reveals that the residuary estate amounts to more than $200,000.00, the largest portion of which is George Zeever-ing’s Iron Workers account in the amount of $203,248.61. Final Accounting, 5/23/12, at 9.2

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
78 A.3d 1106, 2013 Pa. Super. 260, 2013 WL 5366989, 2013 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2681, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/estate-of-zeevering-pasuperct-2013.