My jurisdiction is: Texas
My Mother passed away in Dec '06 and I am the Exectutrix for her estate. In her Will, she left all of her property to be divided equally between her four living children or their stipends.
Mother bought 20 waterfront acres on Toledo Bend in Sabine County in 1989, moved there in 1996 (after her husband passed away) into an older mobile home she could afford to buy. One of my brothers moved there at that time with his teenage daughter to my Mother's home. He helped her some financially when she didn't have enough money to pay the notes ... my assumption it was in exchange for his living there and her taking care of his child when he was away working.
Around 2001 when my Mother became very ill, he started telling everyone he had paid for everything and the property belonged to him. He even tried convincing my Mother of this and in 2005 had a lawyer draw up papers to transfer the property to him. Mother refused because she wanted the property divided between all of her children so the property remained in her name until she passed away.
Just a couple of months before she passed away, he moved a new mobile home onto the property for him and his wife. When he found out after my Mother's death that she had left a Will for her property to be equally divided, he filed a partnership and constructive trust claim against the estate.
He first started out claiming he had made the down payment on the land, paid for the mobile home Mother lived in, and almost all the notes. As I scoured through boxes of papers, I found documents that proved otherwise on those points so I felt like we had a fairly good case to prove he was lying in his attepmt to take the entire 20 acres for himself.
In early 2006, he deposited $5,000 of FEMA money my Mother received from Hurricane Rita into his account rather than hers as she requested. After her death, he sold off cattle that she owned and moved other items from her property such as an Airstream trailer and a classic '65 Chevrolet truck. He put gates up to keep us off of the land and threatened us when we went to HER house after her passing to move her belongings.
The reason I mention all of this is I've had two lawyers from that area of Texas and neither seem to stand up for me as the Executrix in getting support against his actions. I asked them to file something so he could not make any further changes on the property until this was settled or to remove any of her property but they didn't. Her has now built onto his mobile home, which appears to give him more leverage according to MY attorney.
His lawyer now wants us to make an offer on the land to settle this rather than go to court. My other brother and my nephew (my oldest brother passed away right before my Mom) are against it and are frustrated because we feel like we are having to accept this brother's illegal actions. We feel like we have NO rights and all we want to do is just settle this fairly for all.
Any recommendations are appreciated as we are so baffled in how to proceed.
Thank you!
My Mother passed away in Dec '06 and I am the Exectutrix for her estate. In her Will, she left all of her property to be divided equally between her four living children or their stipends.
Mother bought 20 waterfront acres on Toledo Bend in Sabine County in 1989, moved there in 1996 (after her husband passed away) into an older mobile home she could afford to buy. One of my brothers moved there at that time with his teenage daughter to my Mother's home. He helped her some financially when she didn't have enough money to pay the notes ... my assumption it was in exchange for his living there and her taking care of his child when he was away working.
Around 2001 when my Mother became very ill, he started telling everyone he had paid for everything and the property belonged to him. He even tried convincing my Mother of this and in 2005 had a lawyer draw up papers to transfer the property to him. Mother refused because she wanted the property divided between all of her children so the property remained in her name until she passed away.
Just a couple of months before she passed away, he moved a new mobile home onto the property for him and his wife. When he found out after my Mother's death that she had left a Will for her property to be equally divided, he filed a partnership and constructive trust claim against the estate.
He first started out claiming he had made the down payment on the land, paid for the mobile home Mother lived in, and almost all the notes. As I scoured through boxes of papers, I found documents that proved otherwise on those points so I felt like we had a fairly good case to prove he was lying in his attepmt to take the entire 20 acres for himself.
In early 2006, he deposited $5,000 of FEMA money my Mother received from Hurricane Rita into his account rather than hers as she requested. After her death, he sold off cattle that she owned and moved other items from her property such as an Airstream trailer and a classic '65 Chevrolet truck. He put gates up to keep us off of the land and threatened us when we went to HER house after her passing to move her belongings.
The reason I mention all of this is I've had two lawyers from that area of Texas and neither seem to stand up for me as the Executrix in getting support against his actions. I asked them to file something so he could not make any further changes on the property until this was settled or to remove any of her property but they didn't. Her has now built onto his mobile home, which appears to give him more leverage according to MY attorney.
His lawyer now wants us to make an offer on the land to settle this rather than go to court. My other brother and my nephew (my oldest brother passed away right before my Mom) are against it and are frustrated because we feel like we are having to accept this brother's illegal actions. We feel like we have NO rights and all we want to do is just settle this fairly for all.
Any recommendations are appreciated as we are so baffled in how to proceed.
Thank you!
