Estate funds can be used for will contest in foreign court.

Byline: Barry Bridges

A Superior Court judge has ruled that a Rhode Island administratrix is entitled to use money from a decedent's estate to fund a will contest in another country.

The case centers on the assets of Matoula Papadopouli, who was a dual citizen of the United States and Greece. She executed a will while living in Pennsylvania in 2001 and is also claimed to have executed a holographic will in Greece 12 years later.

A dispute over the competing documents quickly developed after Papadopouli's death in 2015, with the present decision emanating from an appeal of a Probate Court order by the nonprofit beneficiary of the Greek will. The organization objected to the Middletown judge's decision to allow the administratrix to use estate assets to fund a will contest in Greece.

But Judge William E. Carnes Jr. agreed with the conclusion of the Probate Court judge. After finding that Rhode Island law was applicable, he honed in on the fact that the state's law "reflects a tendency to provide for reimbursement of necessary expenditures for estate administrators as part of the expenses of administration to be paid from the estate."

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Newport attorney Peter B. Regan said a takeaway from the litigation lies in the importance of choosing counsel in a foreign matter who can communicate effectively to assist the case, which was especially important to the choice-of-law issue in Papadopouli.

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And perceiving weaknesses in the arguments made in support of the holographic will's validity, Carnes added that, "[h]ere, the administratrix has a fiduciary duty to defend the will from potential fraudulent claims and is entitled to the fees and costs associated with this administrative duty."

'Outright potential fraud'

Newport attorney Peter B. Regan is representing the administratrix, Cynthia A. Kendall. He said that will contests more typically arise with issues of capacity or undue influence, and do not often involve "outright potential fraud" that is the administratrix's concern in the case at hand.

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CASE: To Hamogelo Toy Paidiou v. Estate of Matoula Papadopouli, Lawyers Weekly 61-117-19 (22 pages)

COURT: Superior Court

ISSUE: Is an administratrix entitled to use money from a decedent's estate to fund a will contest in a foreign country?

DECISION: Yes[/box]

"The court agreed with us that the administratrix had a duty to defend what appears on its face to be a fraudulent claim," Regan...