It’s not often that a personal representative asks a court to remove her.  It’s probably less often that a trial court refuses to remove a personal representative who asks to be removed.  But, that was the situation before the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin in Rapp v. Weller.  The appellate court, however, ultimately decided that the personal representative should be removed for an unmanageable conflict of interest.  What was the conflict of interest?

The personal representative had conflicts stemming from her fiduciary duties to the estate she represented and her personal interest as an heir of that same estate.  Laura Rapp had been appointed as personal representative for her brother Laurence Berg’s estate.  She participated in a mediation and signed a settlement agreement on the estate’s behalf.

Individual trustees who must administer real property often attempt to save the trust money by personally making certain improvements, repairs, or maintenance to the property.  They then charge the trust for the work they performed.  As the Nebraska Court of Appeals points out in In re Estate of Robb, however, these acts – however well-intentioned – may be self-dealing and can put the trustee in a position of a conflict of interest, which can warrant removal from that fiduciary position.

Lawyers like to get paid.

Clients like it if they can get someone else to pick up the tab for their lawyer’s fees.

That’s why a Florida appellate court’s decision in Bonney v. Bonney stings.

In an attempt to provide certainty to property rights, the Utah Legislature included in the Utah Probate Code a provision that limits certain proceedings where neither an heir nor a creditor has requested the administration of an estate within three years of the decedent’s death (Utah Code 75-3-107).

In In the Matter of the Estate of Eleanor Strand, a party alleged that this limitation extended to the ability of the probate court to appoint a personal representative of an intestate estate more than three years after the decedent’s death.  Not so, said the Utah Court of Appeals, and here’s why.

It happened again in Florida.

Let’s start this week with a brief reminder of Florida probate law, courtesy of Florida’s Third District Court of Appeal in Zulon v. Peckins: