Rubin on Probate Litigation

Flegal v. Guardianship of Swistock , 169 So.3d 278 (Fla. 4th DCA 2015), 2015 WL 4269079 This case centered around the ownership of stock shares and due process within a guardianship proceeding.  The dispute arose over the ownership of stock shares which were initially purchased by a father and his daughters as joint tenants with right of survivorship. Prior to his incapacity, the father sued his daughters in Pennsylvania over ownership of these shares.  He claimed even though he had transferred the shares to his daughters as joint tenants with rights of survivorship, he did not actually intend to gift the stock to them.  As evidence of this intent, he established that he had paid for the stock, kept possession of the certificates, retained all dividends and paid income taxes on the dividends.  He asked the daughters to sign the stock back to him, but they refused, so he sought a declaration that he was the sole owner of the stock. While this litigation w...

Romano v. Olshen , 153 So.2d 912 (2014), 2014 WL 940700 The Appellate Court described this case as one "at the intersection where guardianship law meets the law concerning forms of ownership of joint bank or brokerage accounts."  It involved the ability of a guardian of the property and the attorney for guardian to recover fees from an account owned by the ward and his wife as joint tenants with rights of survivorship. The ward and his wife were at odds when he was declared incompetent, and their divorce proceedings were put on hold during the guardianship.  Eventually, the ward died while still married to his wife.  The main asset of the guardianship estate was an account titled in the names of the husband and the wife, as joint tenants with rights of survivorship.  Even though the guardianship court authorized the fees of the guardian and his attorney, other than the account held with the wife, the guardianship estate did not have enough liquid assets to p...