Withers' London and Californian offices have successfully secured $1.5 million for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) arising out of a tragic murder in San Francisco more than 20 years ago.
Background
Anne Outin was murdered by her adopted son Thomas in 2004.
Originally from England, Anne lived in San Francisco. She was divorced and was survived by her mother, Mabel, and her siblings, Mai and David.
She had executed a Will leaving her estate to Thomas. She also had a Living Trust of which she was the beneficiary during her lifetime, with Thomas to be the sole beneficiary on her death.
California's Probate Code dictates that a murderer may not benefit from the estate of the victim. This is known as the 'slayer rule'. It operates so that, for the purposes of interpreting any will or trust of the victim, the murderer is treated as having predeceased.
Thomas therefore could not inherit anything from Anne. Because Thomas was the sole named beneficiary, Anne's estate and trust passed under California intestacy law to her mother Mabel, her closest surviving relative.
The California Probate Court appointed Don Steele as Anne's Administrator. However, Mr Steele died in 2009 without collecting in the estate. Following his death there was no successor to Mr Steele until a professional fiduciary Debra Dolch was appointed as Administrator in 2018.
To further complicate matters, Mabel, who lived in England, had passed away in 2005. She had left a Will which appointed her other daughter, Mai, and a solicitor, as her executors and gave a legacy of £5,000 to each daughter (of course Anne had predeceased) and residue to RNIB. However, at the time, it was thought Mabel only had some National Savings. The solicitor formally renounced probate and NSI released funds to Mai without requiring her to obtain a Grant of Probate.
RNIB was thus never aware of Mabel's estate, let alone of its interest in funds from Anne's estate and Living Trust.
At some point, Finders International Probate Genealogists, aware that Anne's estate had passed to Mabel, contacted Mabel's son John. He instructed solicitors and they applied for Letters of Administration in his mother's estate. In 2020, those solicitors contacted his sister Mai who confirmed their mother had in fact left a Will benefitting RNIB.
Ultimately, Ms Dolch commenced probate and trust proceedings in California, leading RNIB to learn about its interest more than 17 years after Mabel's death.
Securing the benefit
Paul Hewitt and Deborah Nicholls-Carr in our London office represented RNIB in discussions with Mabel's family, following which Dora Clarke secured a Grant of Letters of Administration with Will annexed in England in favour of RNIB.
RNIB's appointment as Administrator of Mabel's estate gave the charity authority to act on behalf of Mabel's estate, and it appointed Jeremy Moffitt and Craig Weinstein in our California office to represent it in the Californian Court proceedings.
Due to the history of the matter, there were procedural hurdles to overcome before the assets could be distributed to RNIB, but RNIB did receive its funds last month.
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