Shearer Estate

1 Pa. D. & C.4th 243, 1988 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 60
CourtPennsylvania Orphans' Court, Crawford County
DecidedAugust 3, 1988
Docketno. 1987-193
StatusPublished

This text of 1 Pa. D. & C.4th 243 (Shearer Estate) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Orphans' Court, Crawford County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shearer Estate, 1 Pa. D. & C.4th 243, 1988 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 60 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1988).

Opinion

THOMAS, P.J.,

This is a petition for declaratory judgment filed by First National Bank of Pa., administrator C.T.A. of the estate of Harold Arden Shearer, requesting court resolution of the problem created by the widow’s election to take against her late husband’s will.

PERTINENT FACTUAL BACKGROUND

Harold Shearer at age 75 married Aurela Alexander, age 75, on August 15, 1982. It was Harold’s third marriage and Aurela’s second. Harold died May 29, 1987 and his only next of kin were his wife Aurela and a son, John H. Shearer. Harold left a holographic will dated March 19, 1984, leaving wife Aurela Shearer $30,000 and the rights to occupy the marital home for life. The balance of his estate was bequeathed to son John. On October 22', 1987, Aurela filed a declaration to take against the will under the Decedents, Estates and Fiduciaries Code, 20 Pa.C.S. §2203. Harold’s estate consisted of some $134,000 in probate assets, plus some $117,000 in jointly held assets with son John. The jointly held assets with son John create the problem for resolution, as all except one certificate of deposit ($4,000) were placed in joint names of father and son prior to the marriage of Harold and Aurela.

Aurela’s contention is that 20 Pa.C.S. §2203(a)(3) confers upon her the right to “take against the will,” and claim one-third of the total value of some of the [245]*245jointly held assets and one-third of one-half of others. Section 2203(a)(3) reads as follows:

“§2203. Right of election; resident decedent — “(^Property subject to election — When a married person domiciled in this commonwealth dies, his surviving spouse has a right to an elective share of one-third of the following property:
“(3) Property conveyed by the decedent during his lifetime to the extent that the decedent at the time of his death had a power to revoke the conveyance or to consume, invade or dispose of the principal for his own benefit.”

We note the definition of “conveyance” in section 2201 is a broad one, and “means any act by which it is intended to create an interest in real or personal property whether the act is intended to have inter vivos or testamentary operation.”

The son’s posture is that only conveyances into joint ownership during marriage are subject to the widow’s election and 2203(a)(4) is controlling.

“(4) Property conveyed by the decedent during the marriage to himself and another or others with right of survivorship to the extent of any interest in the property that the decedent had the power at the time of his death unilaterally to convey absolutely or in fee.”

There is no dispute that a joint certificate of deposit in the joint name of father and son dated May 1, 1984, in the amount of $4,000 with First National Bank of Pa. is subject to 2203(a)(4) and subject to the widow’s election.

LEGAL ISSUE

The clear and simple issue for court resolution is whether any of the jointly held father and son assets [246]*246(excepting the above-noted $4,000 C.D.) are includable for the purpose of calculating the widow’s share under section 2203.

DISCUSSION

The elective share statute applicable in this case was enacted April 18, 1978, and became effective June 18, 1978. This statute is patterned after the Uniform Probate Code, U.L.A. 2-201, 202. However, Pennsylvania did not enact the complex “Augmented Estate” provisions contained in the Uniform Code 2-202(2). The Uniform Code in 2-202(1) permits only transfers of the deceased made during the marriage to be subject to the surviving spouse’s one-third elective share.

The Pennsylvania statute follows the Uniform Probate Code in this regard in 2203(a)(4).

The Pennsylvania law prior to the 1978 amendment was found in the 1972 Act on 20 Pa.C.S. §§2508 and 6111(a). The latter section reads as follows:

“In General — A conveyance of assets by a person who retains a power of appointment by will, or a power of revocation or consumption over the principal thereof, shall, at the election of his surviving spouse, be treated as a testamentary disposition so far as the surviving spouse is concerned to the extent to which the power has been reserved, but the right of the surviving spouse shall be subject to the rights of any income beneficiary whose interest in income becomes vested in enjoyment prior to the death of the conveyor.”

It should be noted that section 6111(a) did not specify whether conveyances and reserved powers [247]*247covered all conveyances made by the decedent or only those made during the marriage.

This issue came before our Supreme Court under the 1972 statute in Estate of Kotz, 486 Pa. 444, 406 A.2d 524 (1979). The Supreme Court postulated that the puspose of section 6111 “was to prevent a husband from indirectly disinheriting his wife through an inter vivos transfer while retaining control over the use and enjoyment of his property during his lifetime.” The court further noted prior case law holding that, “the mischief to be remedied and the reason for the new law are clear (i.e. the 1972 law and its predecessors). Wives are being unfairly deprived of a share in their husband’s personal property by a transparent trust device which permitted a husband to retain control of his property and at the same time legally deprive his wife of her just marital right therin.” Kotz, supra.

In Kotz, decedent and his sister had acquired real estate as joint tenants with right of survivorship eight years before Kotz married his surviving widow Mary. Widow Mary contended section 6111 covered premarital transfers and the surviving joint tenant sister Virginia contended this section was only applicable to transfers made during marriage.

The Supreme Court ruled that 6111 applied only to “conveyances” made during marriage and rejected the widow’s elective claim to the jointly owned real estate. Justice Roberts, in concurring, noted that the Supreme Court decision was made under a section that was repealed by the 1978 amendments, postulating that under 2203(a)(4) of the 1978 amendment only property conveyed during the marriage was subject to the widow’s election. Roberts noted that (if) “the 1978 provision (were) applicable (it) clearly requires the same result we reach today under 6111.” Whether Rob[248]*248erts overlooked 2203(a)(3) or concluded it was inapplicable or whether 2203(a)(3) was added as a last-minute amendment unknown to Roberts is not known.

Obviously the purpose of 2203(a)(4) was to protect spouses from being denied a just share of their deceased spouses’ estates. But did the legislature in 1978 so dramatically extend this protection that it created rights in each other’s estates before the marriage, or indeed even before the prospective spouses knew each other? Joint interests created between friends, parents and children and grandparents and grandchildren are frequently created with no intention to defraud a prospective or unknown spouse-to-be. Was it the legislature’s intent that a grandfather’s benevolent “conveyance” creating a joint tenancy “college fund account” for a newborn grandchild be subject to a future wife’s election to take against his will?

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Related

Estate of Kotz
406 A.2d 524 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1979)

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Bluebook (online)
1 Pa. D. & C.4th 243, 1988 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 60, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shearer-estate-paorphctcrawfo-1988.