It was not an abuse of discretion for the Orphans’ Court to remove the father of the incapacitated person as guardian when the father had failed to provide financial information and turn over assets to a successor guardian as ordered by the court, had been verbally aggressive and uncooperative with the son’s caregivers, and had commingled his son’s assets with his own. It was also not an abuse of discretion to deny the father’s request for a continuance when he had had three months to prepare for the hearing on his petition and the continuance would not be in the best interests of his son. In re: Estate of E.C.P., an Incapacitated Person, 1 Fid.Rep.4th 451 (Bucks O.C. 2023), on appeal, 2357 EDA 2023 (Pa. Super.)
Executor is required to reimburse estate for estate funds used to pay taxes and expenses of decedent’s business. Sale of property to decedent’s daughter for less than the value reported on the inheritance tax return was approved due to the dilapidated condition of the property and the expenses incurred by the daughter to improve the property. Payment of the family exemption to the daughter was also approved. The account of the executor as agent for the decedent during his lifetime was approved even though it showed no meaningful transactions based upon the credible testimony of the agent that he conducted no financial transactions for the decedent. Hill Estate, 1 Fid.Rep.4th 413 (Bucks O.D. 2023).
The administrator was properly removed for failing to make any effort to settle or distribute the estate for twenty-five years, for failing to keep records allowing for an account of his administration, and for co-mingling of assets. Neither the lack of any action by the beneficiaries nor the possible increase in the value of the estate excused the failures of the administrator. Frey Estate, 1 Fid.Rep.4th 405 (Luzerne O.C. 2021), aff’d, 1533 MDA 2020, 258 A.3d 553 (Pa. Super. 2021) (non-precedential).
In litigation over the compensation and expenses of trustees of a charitable trust, the Orphans’ Court denied enforcement of interrogatories by the trustees addressed to the Attorney General which requested information about admissions and the purposes of expenses because the interrogatories were overly broad and burdensome and requested information that the Attorney General did not have. 1994 Charles B. Degenstein Foundation, 1 Fid.Rep.4th 399 (Snyder O.C. 2023).
The appellant told his cousin that he planned to order a gun and ammunition to kill his stepbrother, and those statements were relayed to a physician who considered them to be credible threats and who recommended an extended commitment for treatment in accordance with § 303 of the Mental Health Procedures Act. The articulation of a specific plan to harm an identified target is sufficient to prove an act in furtherance of a threat to commit harm, and so is sufficient evidence that the appellant posed a clear and present danger of harm to others. In re: S.O., ___ A.3d ___, 2023 PA Super 31 (2023).
When objections are made to expenses claimed by an executor, the burden is on the executor to provide receipts or other evidence of the purpose and payment of the expenses, and the Orphans’ Court properly surcharged the executor for undocumented expenses, as well as the claims of the executor for “missed work,” both mileage and car rental fees, a “meal allowance,” a “commission in lieu of attorney fee” when the executor was disbarred on consent and not licensed to practice law, excessive compensation, and the costs of an unjustified number of trips to Pennsylvania from the executor’s home in Florida. Estate of Henderson, 1151 WDA 2022 (Pa. Super. 12/13/2023) (non-precedential).
Provisions of trust documents requiring that successor trustees that may be appointed in the future must be partners of a named law firm does not require that the trustee who is appointed and accepts the appointment must remain a partner in the named firm, and the trustee who is appointed and serving as trustee does not cease to be a trustee upon leaving the named law firm. Oberkotter Trusts (No. 1), 1 Fid.Rep.4th 385 (Montgomery O.C. 2022).
To the extent that the trust document is silent on the issue, the language of the document must be construed against the document’s drafters. Oberkotter Trusts (No. 2), 1 Fid.Rep.4th 396 (Montgomery 2023), app. discont., 797 EDA 2023 (Pa. Super. 9/25/2023).
The lack of any testimony from a handwriting expert, together with the “imprecise” testimony of children who were disinherited, did not amount to clear and convincing evidence of forgery, and was credibly refuted by the scrivener who testified to the preparation and execution of the will. In re: Estate of Sarah S. Hollingsworth, 315 A.3d 93, 575 EDA 2023 (Pa. Super. 2/21/2024) (non-precedential), aff’g 2 Fid.Rep.4th 143 (Philadelphia O.C. 9/14/2022).
Pa.R.O.C.P. 4.1(c) (and similar rules in most other courts) states that the text of all petitions and other “legal paper” filed with the Orphans’ Court must be “double spaced.” Based on a recent motion filed in a federal court and that court’s ruling on that motion, it appears that “double spaced” can have at least two meanings. However, it is likely that, unless you are a tech geek or a typesetting fanatic, you should not care or need to care.
Fonts and Line Spacings
Pa.R.O.C.P. 4.1(d) requires the use of lettering that is no smaller than 12 points, a “point” being 1/72nd of a inch. A 12 point font is therefore one sixth of an inch, and one would expect that single-spaced 12 point text would be six lines to an inch.
And that might be the result using a standard manual typewriter with 12 point Courier type and one carriage return per line.
For reasons that aren’t altogether clear, but might have to do with aesthetics or readability, Microsoft Word and most other word processing programs will “single space” a 12 point font at about 14 points per line, so “double spaced” text in Word is actually about 28 points per line and not 24 points. However, it is possible to set line spacing at 12 points per line or 24 points per line if you want.
And some lawyers thought that was worth litigating.
The Litigation
Jessica Jones et al. v. Varsity Brands LLC, et al., is a class action lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee, and the lawyers for the plaintiffs decided to set the line spacings in their filings to exactly 24 points rather than the 28 points which Word would use by default. The defendants claimed that the plaintiffs were doing that to get more words on each page (27 lines of text instead of 23) and filed a motion to require the plaintiffs to comply with a local rule that required that filings be “double-spaced.” (According to a footnote in the court’s order, the defendants initially raised in the issue in order to try to get an extension of time to file a reply in connection with a motion for summary judgment.)
After explaining the two different possible meanings of “double-spaced,” and citing two different conclusions in two opinions from other courts, the court in Jessica Jones refused to take a position on the meaning of “double-spaced” but also found that a 24 point spacing did not violate the local rule, concluding with the following observations:
“The Court further notes that the last thing any party needs is more words on a page. The length of an argument is no guarantee of its success, and indeed could result in more confusion, not clarity. Moving forward, the Parties are encouraged to spend their valuable time focusing on the merits of this case, and certainly not figuring out how many sometimes-useless words will fit on a page.”
The Author’s Practice
I must confess that for many years I have been filing petitions and other documents in the Orphans’ Court with line spacings that were not what Word calls “double” or were even 24 points, but were what Word calls “1.5 lines,” which is halfway between single and double spacing.
I did this because I believe that the rule requiring “double spaced” was to improve readability and not limit the lines or words on the page. To my eye, double-spacing in Word appeared to be too spaced out and too far between the lines of text, while the 1.5 lines setting was more attractive and more readable.
If you look at most published works of fiction (and not court reporters or textbooks), you will see similar line spacings, which are more than single spaced but less than double spaced. This is because fiction is read for pleasure and publishers want to make the books easier to read.
Based on what I now know, I understand that 1.5 lines of 12 point type is about 21 points, which is significantly more than the 12 points resulting from “single spaced” and only slightly less than the 24 points resulting from “double spaced.”
So I believe I have complied with the spirit and intent of Pa.R.O.C.P. 4.1(c) even if I have not complied with a literal interpretation of the rule.
And no judge or party has complained about, or perhaps even noticed, the line spacings in my filings (at least so far).
Conclusion
The requirement of double-spacing in court filings is probably for readability rather than as a limit on pages, lines of text, or words. For that reason, it should be possible to use either 24 point spacing or the “double” line spacing in a word processing program without violating court rules (and most likely without anyone noticing).
The executor was able to provide credible explanations for checks that were written and expenses that were incurred, and credible testimony that the beneficiaries were given an opportunity to claim items of personal property before they were removed from the decedent’s residence and discarded, so the various objections to the account of the executor were denied. The executor also testified credibly that the only actions he took as agent under a power of attorney before the decedent’s death were at the request of the decedent, and so the request for an accounting by the executor as agent was denied. Selig Estate, 1 Fid.Rep.4th 338 (Monroe O.C. 2023).