Q: Caveat & Will filed with Court for minor by parent. Estate 1yr later filed has case no. assigned b4 caveat by 1 number.
My mother-in-law died predeceased by her husband and children, youngest was my husband. Mother-in-law left real property to my son in a Will which I had and after her death I filed a Caveat 5 mths after her death through a local attorney (limited) he deposited the Will with the Court Clerk it was assigned a case number of (ex not actual) 59CP-2008-001882-W. 1 yr, 17 days after, her oldest sons 2 daughters filed Pet for Admin assigned case no. 59CP-2008-001881-00 backdated to appear as filed b4 caveat. No notice of admin ever served on minor son nor myself. No chance to make claims, etc., never got any order no nothing re estate. Caveat ignored tho filed first. Clerk acted illegally with Petitioner's attorney to proceed with administration and served no notice of admin made caveat appear a moot point as filed after but not true, It was filed before the Estate by over a year? Where do I report the Clerk for fraud on case no. assignment collusion with Petitioner's Attorney?
A:
This is a possible problem with the new electronic filing system. Documents get submitted thru the portal and it can take up to several weeks before they show up as filed, particularly with new cases. Whereas things like caveats and depositing of wills get processed faster.
The next question is why did no one check on this for a year to determine progress. I would suggest you proceed with a claim or other action you may have before the 2 year period after death is up which would extinguish any claim, rather than blaming court personnel at this point. Although someone at the Clerk's office should have noticed they have a deceased person with two different case numbers.
A: To add to my prior answer, some counties do not use the same case number for the deposited will and the actual probate proceeding. This may explain why there are separate numbers, but for either scenario there should have been oversight by the clerk's office to determine if both cases were the same decedent. Also there should have been follow up by the attorney after the caveat was filed.
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