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Wills, Trusts & Estates Keyed to Sterk
Beckwith v. Dahl
Citation:
205 Cal.App.4th 1039 (2012)Facts
Beckwith and MacGinnis, who shared a nearly decade-long committed relationship, lived and occasionally worked together. MacGinnis, whose only surviving family was his estranged sister, Susan Dahl, showed Beckwith a draft will dividing his estate equally between Beckwith and Dahl. However, the will was never signed. During a health decline in May 2009, MacGinnis asked Beckwith to retrieve and finalize the will, but Beckwith could not locate it. Dahl suggested creating a trust instead, delaying action until MacGinnis underwent surgery. The trust was never prepared, and MacGinnis died intestate after the surgery, leaving an estate valued at over $1 million. Following MacGinnis’s death, Dahl opened probate proceedings, excluded Beckwith as an interested party, and was appointed estate administrator. Despite Beckwith’s attempts to engage in the probate process, Dahl claimed that as MacGinnis died without a will, she was the sole heir. Beckwith’s opposition to Dahl’s petition for final estate distribution was dismissed because he lacked legal standing as a creditor or intestate heir.
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