Cheryl Mullins and Eric Corbin v. Estate of John Byron Corbin

Cheryl Mullins and Eric Corbin appeal from the dismissal of their "Objection to Settlement and Petition Contesting Validity of Will," filed in the Estate of John Byron Corbin, deceased, and the denial of their motion for summary judgment thereon. The appellants are the grandniece and grandnephew of the decedent. In objecting to the final settlement of the personal representative of the decedent's estate, respondent Donald Hutchison, they alleged that the estate had been improperly administered in several respects and that the proposed distribution of the residue of the estate to the inter vivos charitable trust created by the decedent, the John Byron Corbin Charitable Trust (the Trust), for which Hutchison and respondents Gene Dines and Lance Sears were trustees, could not be effectuated in that the Trust did not legally exist since it was fraudulently created pursuant to a forged trust instrument. In contesting the probate of the decedent's will, they alleged that the decedent, at the time of its execution, was either incompetent or was acting under duress or undue influence.

The appellants raise seven points on appeal. In both Points I and II, they claim that the probate court erred in dismissing their objections to the personal representative's proposed final settlement in the decedent's estate, along with their petition contesting the will of the decedent, because, although their will contest was time barred under section 473.083,(FN1) their objections were timely filed pursuant to section 473.590, so as to invoke the court's continuing jurisdiction to construe the decedent's will under section 474.520. The only difference between the two claims of error is that in Point I the appellants attack the probate court's reliance on section 473.083 in dismissing their objections, whereas in Point II, they attack its reliance on section 516.120. In Points III-VI, they claim on various grounds that the probate court erred in overruling their motion for summary judgment on their objections to final settlement in which they asserted that, as a matter of law and under the undisputed facts alleged, the Trust was required to "refund" $859,842.29 in prior distributions from the decedent's estate, to pass by intestate succession, because the Trust did not legally exist in that it was fraudulently created by a forged trust instrument. In Point VII, they claim that the probate court erred in overruling their motion for summary judgment as to their petition to remove Hutchison as the personal representative of the decedent's estate because on the undisputed facts alleged he had a conflict of interest and had allegedly participated in the forgery of the instrument establishing the Trust.

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The judgment of the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Vernon County, Missouri, dismissing, on the pleadings, the appellants' "Objection to Settlement and Petition Contesting Validity of Will," is affirmed.

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