OCTOBER 19, 2009 VOLUME 16, NUMBER 58
More than a decade ago we told you about a Utah case involving a widower’s remarriage (see Surviving Spouse Revokes Trust–Children Disinherited from February 2, 1998) . Although the children of the deceased woman and her surviving husband were supposed to receive everything on his later death, the widower revoked his living trust and transferred everything to his new wife. The children were effectively disinherited.
Of course we see that result all the time, as unanticipated shifts in family dynamics follow death and remarriage. When two people with grown families marry, they seldom consider, much less carefully plan, what will happen when the inevitable occurs. Now an interesting case — and, interestingly, again out of Provo, Utah — raises an unusual variant of the same story.
Harold and Edith LeFevre had seven adult children. After Edith died in 1987, Harold married Ellen Stout, who had five grown children of her own. When Harold died in 1993, he had made no estate plan at all. The second Mrs. LeFevre met with her late husband’s children to discuss his estate, and they all agreed that she should live in the family home for the rest of her life. She agreed that she would create a trust that left the home to the children, and that she would handle the probate of Harold’s estate to get the house into the trust.
One month after Harold’s death his widow met with her attorney to plan her own estate. The trust she had him prepare, however, did not resemble the agreement she had entered into with her stepchildren. Instead, the LeFevre family home was left half to her stepchildren and half to her own children.
Ellen then handled the probate of her late husband’s estate, transferring the residence into the trust she had created. Two years later, she amended the trust to disinherit the LeFevre children altogether, leaving the home and all her other assets to her children only.
For nearly a decade Ellen LeFevre lived in the home, becoming increasingly reclusive and withdrawn. Her son encouraged her to cut off communication with her stepchildren, and when she died in 2004 they were not even aware of the fact for some months. After they learned of her death and requested a copy of the trust, they were surprised to learn that they would not receive any portion of their father’s estate.
In a contested proceeding, the probate judge imposed a “constructive” trust, ruling that Ellen LeFevre had agreed to place the home in trust and then had violated that agreement. The Utah Court of Appeals agreed, and ordered that the home be transferred back to the LeFevre children.
According to the appellate judges, Ellen LeFevre had entered into a valid agreement, she had breached the terms of that agreement, and her children had been “unjustly enriched” as a result of her breach. The appellate court did not agree with the children that they should have their attorney’s fees paid by Ellen LeFevre’s estate. In the Matter of the Estate of LeFevre, October 9, 2009.
