No Action against Lawyer and Charity

Action against lawyer to decedent and charitable beneficiary of estate was dismissed because lawyer did not have conflict of interest merely because the lawyer’s partner has represented the charity in other matters and charity was not unjustly enriched.  Estate of Kasych v. Butz, 7 Fid.Rep.3d 139 (Lehigh Co. C.P. 2017).

Surcharge Imposed for Unjustified Payments

Administrator C.T.A. surcharged for disbursements from estate funds for expenses that appear to be for her own personal use, and for amounts paid to the estate of the decedent’s brother and his widow, but not for amounts paid for repairs to be made to a property co-owned with the decedent’s brother, even though the repairs were apparently never made and the administrator was the victim of a scam, or for amounts paid to a possible contestant to the will.  Commissions paid to the administrator of approximately 6% of the gross estate were reduced by one half.  Hunsicker Estate, 7 Fid.Rep.3d 130 (Monroe Co. O.C. 2017).

Federal Law Does Not Bar Access to Decedent’s On-Line Accounts (Mass.)

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has held that the federal Stored Communications Act (18 U.S.C. §§ 2701 et. seq.) does not prohibit Internet service providers from providing access to the digital assets of a decedent to the personal representatives of the decedent’s estate.  Ajemian v. YAHOO!, 478 Mass. 169 (2017), No. SJC-12237  (Mass. 10/16/2017).

Note:  This appears to be the first case to address this issue, and hopefully other courts will follow suit.  The decision does not mean that personal representatives are entitled to access to the decedent’s digital assets, but only that federal law does not prohibit access.  It therefore removes the primary obstacle to the implementation of the Revised Uniform Fiduciary Access to Digital Assets Act, which has been enacted in a number of states and is currently pending in the Pennsylvania legislature as S.B. 827.

Ninety-One Year Old not Adjudicated Incapacitated

A son’s petition to have his 91 year old mother declared incapacitated was denied when the son had a power of attorney for his mother and controlled her finances, so that it was unlikely that his mother would become the victim of designing persons, and there was insufficient evidence that his mother was unable to care for herself, or that there were medical conditions requiring frequent monitoring by a physician.  In re D.G., Alleged Incapacitated Person, 7 Fid.Rep.3d 116 (O.C. Berks Co. 2016).

Claim of Half-Brother to Unclaimed Property Denied

A claim to unclaimed property held by the Pennsylvania Treasury was properly denied when the property was a joint account in the names of the claimant’s mother and half-sister, the mother predeceased the half-sister so that the account became the sole property of the half-sister, and the claimant was not an heir to the half-sister because she was survived by her father.  Morris v. Pa. Treasury Dept., Bureau of Unclaimed Property, 152 A.3d 1083, 7 Fid.Rep.3d 112, 668 C.D. 2016 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2016).

Administrator of Settlor’s Estate Has Standing in Action for Temporary Trustee

The administrator of the deceased settlor’s estate has standing to request the appointment of a temporary trustee when the trust was for the settlor’s benefit during his lifetime, the estate may have assets within the real properties held in the trust, and the settlor had been contesting the validity of the trust, but the request for a temporary fiduciary was denied when the trustee has engaged counsel and a property manager in order to properly manage the properties.  Altemose Trust, 7 Fid.Rep.3d 99 (O.C. Monroe Co. 2016).