HPM Wins Unique Will Contest Case! Miami-Dade County Trial Court Denies Grandson’s Request to Admit a Lost or Destroyed Will and Required the Estate Be Administered Intestate

Two attorneys from Huth, Pratt & Milhauser in Boca Raton, FL: Brandan J. Pratt and Zander J. Retamar, representing the daughter of the Decedent, successfully challenged the request for admission of a copy of a Miami-Dade Decedent’s Last Will and Testament in a volatile family dispute involving competing Petitions for Administration of the Decedent’s estate. The Decedent had three children – two sons and one daughter. The Decedent’s grandson filed a Petition for Administration, and a copy of the Decedent’s Last Will and Testament (“Will”) which was executed in 2006. The Will named the Decedent’s grandson and granddaughter as the sole beneficiaries of the Decedent’s estate – effectively cutting out the Decedent’s children, and other grandchildren. The daughter of the Decedent objected to the Petition for Administration and filed a Counter-Petition for Administration seeking to have the Decedent’s estate administered pursuant to the laws of intestacy – effectively splitting the estate into equal shares between the Decedent’s three children.

After a contentious hearing, the presiding Judge found in favor of the Decedent’s daughter. The Judge found the Decedent’s daughter to be very credible, and the evidence submitted by the Decedent’s daughter at trial suggested that the Decedent intended to revoke his Will prior to his death, and the Decedent’s estate should be administered pursuant to the laws of intestacy. As a result, Huth, Pratt, & Milhauser was able to secure the Decedent’s daughter a one-third (1/3) interest in the Decedent’s estate instead of Zero!