Action for personal injuries brought by an estate is untimely, and the statute of limitations will not be extended by a period within which the decedent might not have known that her automobile accident injuries were serious enough to qualify … Continue reading
Category Archives: Opinions
The Supreme Court has allowed an appeal from the decision of the Superior Court in Passarelli Family Trust, 2019 PA Super 95 (3/28/2019) (en banc), rev’g 7 Fid.Rep.3d 63 (O.C. Chester Co. 2016). The issues listed in the court’s order are: (1) … Continue reading
Under the amended version of 20 Pa.C.S. § 2106(b), a parent may be found to have forfeited an intestate share of the estate of a child for failure to support the child even if the failure of support is not … Continue reading
The Orphans’ Court improperly excluded documentary evidence of the birth records of claimants to the estate, and could not exclude the testimony of a genealogical witness to be paid on a contingent fee for a violation of the Rules of … Continue reading
When a trust owns an annuity contract making annual payments, the estate of a beneficiary who dies after the annual payment date but before the distribution of the payment is entitled to the deceased beneficiary’s share of the annuity payment, … Continue reading
Petition to seal proceedings to allocate settlement between wrongful death and survival actions was denied in the absence of a showing that disclosure would work a clearly defined and serious injury to the parties, who only alleged that the “substantial … Continue reading
The court refused to stay its review of the account of the trustees (based on in rem jurisdiction) while an action against the same trustees for tortious conduct in the administration of the trust (based on personal jurisdiction) was pending … Continue reading
The court exercised its discretion to summarily remove both co-administrators when both had filed pleadings to remove the other, finding that an evidentiary hearing would result in delay as well as unnecessary fees and expenses, and that the discord was … Continue reading
It was an abuse of discretion and a denial of due process to deny a hearing on whether the contestant to a will had probable cause to challenge the validity of the will when the probate appeal was dismissed on … Continue reading
The U.S. Supreme Court has held that a state cannot tax the undistributed income of a trust when the only connection between the state and the trust is that beneficiaries of the trust reside in the state but the beneficiaries … Continue reading