Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California

contract to make a will?

father died inteste. mother in law of 4 years asked 4 siblings to have home signed over to her to live in. (i know, how stupid) in return she was going to leave 80% of the home to his children upon the sale. she did a will leaving us 80% of the house, we saw the draft, but now found out she never signed it!! the home was sold prior to her death and she ''loaned'' our percentage to her daughter to purchase a home with the promise to pay us back when another home sold. that home sold long ago but the daughter pretends she knows nothing about any promise. mother in law has now passed. she left the 4 stepkids $15k each in her trust but there are no assets - other than the house her daughter bought with our money (she and mother in law were joint tenants and it was left to daughter in the trust. daughter bought it for her mom to live in and as an investment) would we have a case under ''contract to make a will''? would this be a very expensive case? do we have a case against the deceased/the daughter? the amount in question is $70-80k. or $15-20k per sibling. thanks!!!


Asked on 5/30/08, 9:16 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mitchell Roth MW Roth, Professional Law Corporation

Re: contract to make a will?

No. It would have to be in writing due to an evidentiary rule called the "dead man's statute". You are, it seems, as a practical matter a victim of the common law maxim, "a good deed never goes unpunished."

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Answered on 5/31/08, 9:13 pm


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