Dinan v. Patten
Annotate this CasePlaintiff’s husband executed a will prior to his marriage to Plaintiff that devised nothing to Plaintiff. After the decedent died, Plaintiff requested that her statutory share be set out. The trial court affirmed in part the judgment of the probate court, concluding (1) the value of the statutory share should be calculated based on the value of the estate as of the date of distribution rather than the value of the estate at the time of the decedent’s death; (2) with respect to the period prior to the date of distribution, Plaintiff was entitled to an average yield of one third of the estate during that time; (3) the probate court properly appointed distributors to set out the statutory share; (4) Plaintiff’s claim to a statutory share was not barred by the doctrines of waiver, estoppel and election of remedies; and (5) the statutory share should be calculated prior to the subtraction of taxes from the value of the estate. The Supreme Court affirmed, holding that the trial court did not err in its judgment.
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