In the Estate of Perez-Muzza, 446 S.W.3d 415 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2014, pet. denied)
The trial court dismissed will contestant’s action
for lack of standing on the ground that she was estopped from contesting
the will. Even though she was not a beneficiary under
the will, she had already accepted property that belonged to the
decedent, had accepted the benefits of a non-probate asset, and had
entered into an agreement with other estopped individuals.
The appellate court reversed.
The court begin its analysis by recognizing that a
person who has standing to contest a will under Estates Code §§ 55.001
and 22.018 may lose that standing if the person accepts benefits under
the will. The court explained that the contestant did
not accept benefits under the will because she merely received some of
the decedent’s property from a donee of the will’s beneficiary.
(The property in question went from the testator’s estate, to the
will beneficiary who then gave it to a third person who later gave it to
the contestant.)
The court then addressed whether the contestant’s
acceptance of funds from a pay on death account the testator established
would prevent her from contesting the will. The court
explained that accepting benefits of a non-probate asset is not the same
as accepting benefits under a will and thus the acceptance could not
operate as an estoppel.
The court also rejected the argument that the
contestant was estopped because she entered into an agreement to share
the proceeds of any future settlement of the will contest with parties
who were actually estopped from contesting. Likewise,
the court determined the trial court’s dismissal of the contest as a
sanction for the contestant’s misstatements in her affidavit was too
extreme of a sanction for her misbehavior and actually deprived her of
due process.
Moral: Even though the contestant in this
case was allowed to continue with her action, it would be prudent for a
will contestant to refrain from accepting property that came from the
testator’s estate and to be truthful when submitting documents to the
court, signing affidavits, and giving testimony.