[WSBAPT] Lost and Found Will - What to Do?

[Marilyn J Kliman Law]

Really curious on this . If anyone has wisdom, please reply to the list.

 

Marilyn J.Kliman

Marilyn J. Kliman Law, PLLC

510 Bell Street

Edmonds, WA 98020

 <tel:206.499.0993> 206.499.0993

 <mailto:Marilyn at MarilynJKlimanLaw.com> Marilyn at MarilynJKlimanLaw.com

 <http://www.marilynjklimanlaw.com/> www.MarilynJKlimanLaw.com

NOTICE: Information contained in this email may be confidential and/or
legally protected from disclosure. Our understanding is that intended
recipients consent to use of e-mail unless we are notified otherwise in
writing. If you are not the intended recipient, nor an employee or agent
responsible for delivering this message to the intended recipient, any
unauthorized dissemination, distribution or copying of this communication is
strictly prohibited. If you have received this in error, please notify us
immediately by replying to the message and deleting it from your computer. 

 

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com
[mailto:wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com] On Behalf Of James W. Spencer
Sent: Thursday, December 13, 2018 9:18 AM
To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv
Subject: [WSBAPT] Lost and Found Will - What to Do?

 

Howdy (RP)PT Hivemind:

 

I have an interesting situation:

 

We drafted a will for decedent earlier this year. Decedent's daughters were
both closely involved in the drafting. Decedent died a month or so ago. Our
off-site storage company could not find the original will we sent to them
for safekeeping, so we drafted a declaration regarding the "lost" original
(with a copy attached) and provided it to the daughters so that they could
use that in an effort to initiate probate proceedings with their new
attorney.

 

The storage facility finally found the will, so we now have the original. We
told daughters (there was some controversy between the two daughters at the
time of execution about the provisions of the will) that we would file the
original as a will only filing with the Court, unless their attorney had
already opened a case number. The attorney responded with a case number, and
to our surprise, the docket reflects that they used a prior will (with
different provisions) to open the estate, and did not file our declaration
re: the lost will. Both daughters verified in the petition that an earlier
will was their father's last will and testament.

 

The (King County) clerk has told us that we must file the found will under
as a will only filing under a new case number.

 

Questions:

1.	Wouldn't it make way more sense for the found original to be filed
under the existing case no? 
2.	How would you bring that will to the Court's attention, regardless
of whether its filed under the existing case number or a new one?
3.	What of the strangeness that the daughters knew of a new will but
probated the old one? Do we bring that to the Court's attention?

 

In my 13 years of practice, I've never dealt with a situation like this, and
thought that some of y'all could provide some valuable insight.

 

Thanks,

James

 

James W. Spencer

Attorney at Law

Brothers & Henderson, P.S.

2722 Eastlake Avenue East, Suite 200

Seattle, Washington 98102

Phone: (206) 324-4300 x106

Fax: (206) 324-3106

e-mail:   <mailto:jamess at brothershenderson.com> jamess at brothershenderson.com

 <http://www.brothershenderson.com/> www.brothershenderson.com

cid:image001.jpg at 01D33AF1.1F3913C0

The information transmitted in this e-mail message and attachments is
attorney-client information, is privileged or confidential material and is
intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. You are
hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution, review by or
taking of any action in reliance on the contents of this e-mail information
by unauthorized persons is strictly prohibited. All personal messages are
solely the views of the sender and are not to be attributed to Brothers &
Henderson, P.S. If you have received this transmission in error, immediately
notify the sender by reply e-mail and permanently delete this transmission
and all copies including attachments.

 



---
This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software.
https://www.avast.com/antivirus
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20181213/bf66eddc/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3164 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20181213/bf66eddc/image001.jpg>