IN RE ESTATE OF ABRAHAM KARMEY, DECEASED
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STATE OF MICHIGAN
COURT OF APPEALS
In the Matter of the Estate of ABRAHAM
KARMEY, Deceased.
MARIANNE KARMEY-KUPKA, GEORGE
KARMEY AND IRENE KARMEY,
UNPUBLISHED
February 8, 2002
Petitioners-Appellants,
v
No. 223270
Wayne Probate Court
LC No. 97-585430-IE
MARGARET KARMEY,
Respondent-Appellee.
Before: Saad, P.J., Bandstra, C.J., and Whitbeck, J.
SAAD, P.J. (dissenting).
I respectfully dissent.
I do not read Kar to have squarely faced, much less decided, the issue of whether the
three-part test for triggering a rebuttable presumption of undue influence applies to a “marital”
will. Moreover, I do not believe that our Supreme Court would so rule if it had directly
addressed this issue.
Were we to apply the three-part test to a will contest where a spouse leaves everything to
a surviving spouse, then a factual finding of a good marriage would automatically mean that a
rebuttable presumption of undue influence would arise. This surely cannot nor should it be the
law. More should be shown to raise a presumption of undue influence between spouses than a
good confidential relationship where each understandably looked to the other for advice and took
the advice of the other. To hold as the majority does and as the majority interprets Kar to have
ruled, simply serves to penalize a good marriage by requiring a will contest trial if a third party
objects to one spouse leaving virtually the entire estate to the surviving spouse.
/s/ Henry William Saad
-1-
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