Jaworski v. Estates of Horwath
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Andrew G. Horwath, Sr. died in 1991. His widow, Marjorie Horwath, later moved to Minnesota to live with their daughter, Mary Jaworski. A Minnesota court entered a conservatorship order for Marjorie, appointing Mary "Conservator of the Person" and Michael Horwath (Andrew and Marjorie's son and Mary's brother) "Conservator of the Estate." Marjorie died in 2001, and Michael died in 2007. Michael served for a time as personal representative of Andrew's estate and applied to do so for Marjorie's estate too, but was not formally appointed. Another Horwath daughter, Sue Streets, became the personal representative for the estates of Andrew, Marjorie, and Michael. In November 2008 Mary presented claims against all three estates, alleging that her then-deceased brother Michael had not always made a court-ordered monthly payment to her for their mother's care and that Michael had not reimbursed her for improvements she made to her house while caring for Marjorie. Mary also claimed Michael had improperly dissipated property and mismanaged both parents' estates. Sue issued a disallowance o f these claims in December 2008, asserting that the claims were unfounded and time-barred under both the non-claim statute and the applicable statutes of limitations. Mary petitioned for an extension of time to initiate proceedings on her disallowed claims. Sue opposed the motion, arguing that no extension could be allowed because all of Mary's claims were barred by the applicable statutes of limitations. The superior court denied Mary's extension petition on grounds that her claims were barred by applicable statutes of limitations. Mary unsuccessfully moved for reconsideration, The court did not respond to the motion for reconsideration, and Mary subsequently appealed. Upon review, the Supreme Court found that although Mary's statement of issues on appeal asserted the superior court erred by denying her requested extension because she "exceeded the period under the statute of limitations," thereby causing a "forfeiture" of her claims, the legal arguments in Mary's opening brief did not address this issue. The issue before the superior court was neither the merits of Mary's claims nor the merits of personal representative Sue 's disallowance of Mary's claims for failure to comply with the non-claim statute. The issue before the court was Mary's requested extension of time to contest Sue's disallowance of Mary's claims. The court denied the extension because the applicable statutes of limitations already had run on all of Mary's claims. Having failed to argue the statute of limitations issues in the superior court or in her opening brief to the Supreme Court, Mary was deemed to have waived these issues. The superior court's decision was therefore affirmed.
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