Rubin on Probate Litigation

Snider v. Metcalfe , 157 So.3d 422 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015), 2015 WL 444497 While part of a trust dispute, this case involved the procedural question of when one must raise a defense of lack of personal jurisdiction in a proceeding.  Here, the Court held that even though the trustee of the trust at issue did not assert her defense of lack of personal jurisdiction in her original motion to dismiss a beneficiary's complaint for breach of trust, because she raised it in a subsequent amended motion to dismiss, she did not waive the defense.  Interestingly, the Court held that neither filing a notice of intent to use trust funds to pay the trustee's attorney's fees nor the filing of two responses to discovery requests amounted to "submission to the court's jurisdiction" or requests for affirmative relief sufficient to waive the defense of lack of personal jurisdiction  The Court distinguished these facts from situations where the party asserting the defense obtaine...

Gordon v. Kleinman , 120 So.3d 120,  2013 WL 4081027 (Fla. 4th DCA 2013): Florida Statutes § 733.109(1) provides that a proceeding to revoke probate of a will can be commenced by any interested person, including a beneficiary under a prior will.  The Probate Code defines an "interested person" as "any person who may reasonably be expected to be affected by the outcome of the particular proceeding involved." Fla. Stat. § 731.201(23). To withstand a motion to dismiss, a petition for revocation of probate must do two things: (1) state the interest of the petitioner in the estate, and (2) present the facts constituting the grounds on which the revocation is demanded.  Fla. P. R. 5.270.  Petitioner here sought to revoke probate of a 2009 will.  She was a beneficiary of the decedent's 1983 will, but was not a beneficiary under any  subsequent  wills leading to the 2009 will.  Because she alleged that she was a beneficiary under the 1983 will, a...