In re Estate of Silsby

Alice Silsby died unmarried and with no children of her own. She made her nephew and attorney, Herbert Silsby, the personal representative of her estate. She also made him the trustee of two trusts created for the benefit of her two sisters, Frances and Mary, during their lifetimes, with the residue to be distributed thereafter to the children of her five siblings, with one-fifth going to each family. Mary died first in 1988. Seven weeks before his mother died in 1989, France’s son Donald also passed away. Herbert read the devise from the trust to mean that Alice had not left anything to the estate of deceased nieces and nephews. Therefore, he distributed Donald’s one-fifth portion according to the intestacy statute. The Supreme Court of Maine affirmed the Probate Court’s decision that the devise of the trust residue had vested and did in fact pass to Donald’s estate. Herbert was personally surcharged for the amount of the judgment. In re Estate of Silsby, 2006 WL 3411858 (Me).