How probate courts handle cases when participants challenge a lifetime maintenance agreement during the probate procedure?

Abstract

Relying on the analysis of judicial practice, in this paper the author discusses the two options that probate courts have at their disposal in the heirs of the diseased person (who is the maintenance recipient) decide to challenge the lifetime maintenance agreement in the course of probate proceedings. The first option, which is quite common in judicial practice, is to stay the probate proceedings until the disputed issue is resolved before the competent (civil or administrative) authority. The author considers this practice to be inadequate because the fact that heirs challenge this agreement is not formally envisaged as the legal ground for staying the probate proceedings. In the author's opinion, regardless of whether the heirs challenge the lifetime maintenance agreement or not, the probate procedure should be terminated if the entire property of the deceased/maintenance recipient is disposed under this contract. If the contract does not cover the entire estate, the court should bring the decision to exclude those assets from the recipient's succession estate, and continue with the probate proceedings. In any case, the heirs are still entitled to file a civil claim in an attempt to prove that there are legal grounds for cancelling or nullifying the agreement.

Keywords

• lifetime maintenance agreement
• stay of probate procedure
• termination of probate procedure