Rubin on Probate Litigation

Ciungu v. Bulea , 162 So.3d 290 (Fla. 1st DCA 2015), 40 Fla.L.Weekly D.689c The decedent's here, a husband and wife, died intestate owning property in both Florida and Romania. One of their children filed Petitions for Administration in both estates and was appointed as personal representative.  He filed probate inventories and served them on his sister and no objections were filed. The trial court entered an order requiring the personal representative to hold his sister's share of the Estate assets in a restricted account until the sister had fulfilled her obligation to ensure legal title to the Romanian properties was properly vested in the persons entitled to receive those properties under Romanian law. The sister filed a motion to vacate that order, asserting that the probate court lacked subject matter jurisdiction over the Romanian property.  At the hearing on the Motion to Vacate, the trial court heard several other issues and ultimately made the following decis...

Lyons v. Lyons  155 So.3d 1179 (2014), 2014 WL 5460621 To understand this decision, I think it makes sense to first lie out the series of quit claim deeds that lead to the litigation: (1)  Husband and wife quit claim their homestead to wife alone. (2) Wife quitclaims the residence to a QPRT,  but husband does not sign quit claim deed. (3) Wife quit claims the residence to herself and her daughter. The trustees of the QPRT moved to set aside conveyance (3) on the grounds that the wife did not own the residence when she attempted to quit claim the residence to herself and her daughter.  The wife responded by arguing that conveyance (1) was void, since it was signed only by her and not her husband.  The trial court agreed with the wife. The Appellate Court reversed the trial court's decision, focusing on the fact that article X, section 4(c) of the Florida Constitution focuses on the conduct of the owner spouse (wife) and provides...