Estate of Riefler, 540 S.W.3d 626 (Tex. App.—Amarillo 2017, no pet.).
The testator died with a will leaving his entire
estate to his spouse who had predeceased him. The will lacked a
residuary clause and thus his estate passed by intestacy. The testator
had no biological descendants. A dispute arose centered on whether his
daughter-in-law was adopted by estoppel which would make her the sole
heir. Before any trial court rulings, the parties reached a settlement
after ten hours of mediation. Later, one of the parties to the agreement
(appellant) objected claiming that (1) he was under the influence of
prescription medication when he signed the agreement, (2) Dallas County
Probate Court approval of the agreement is required before it could be
approved by the County Court at Law where the estate was pending, and
(3) he was misled regarding the value of the estate property. The trial
court rejected all three claims.
The appellate court affirmed. The court explained
that the language in the agreement about Dallas County Probate Court
approval only dealt with property to be distributed to an individual
under guardianship, not the entire agreement. And, it was the
appellant’s fault that the Probate Court did not review the agreement as
he failed to seek that approval.
The opinion contains a nice summary of basic family
settlement agreement law. The agreement in the case fell squarely within
the doctrine as all possible beneficiaries of the testator’s estate
entered in the agreement which resolved their disputes and it contained
a comprehensive disposition plan for the testator’s assets.
The court also held that the trial court’s
determination that the appellant had the capacity to enter into the
settlement agreement was not against the great weight and preponderance
of the evidence such that is was clearly wrong or unjust. In fact, the
appellant admitted that he did not “cut a good deal” and wanted “to get
out of it.”
Moral: Family settlements are a good way of
resolving estate disputes. However, there is always a fear of
“settlement remorse” and a remorseful party making claims with little or
no merit in an attempt to set aside the agreement.