- 18 - the decedent's community property coins and each coin's appraised value. The appraisal on the first statement totaled $5,200,673. The appraisal on the second statement totaled $1,684,444. Shortly after the decedent's death, Ken Lodgen (Mr. Lodgen), the estate's accountant, informed the coexecutors that the decedent may not have disclosed his entire gold coin collection to Ms. Trompeter during the divorce proceeding, and that Ms. Trompeter may have a claim against the estate with respect thereto. On June 16, 1992, Mr. Lodgen, using only Mr. Stuppler's first disclosure statement, supplied Mr. Levinson with a list allegedly identifying community property coins that were not disclosed to Ms. Trompeter during the divorce proceeding. Many of the undisclosed coins set forth on Mr. Lodgen's list were included in Mr. Stuppler's second disclosure statement, which Mr. Lodgen did not know about when he compiled his list. Based on the information provided by Mr. Lodgen, Ms. Trompeter claimed that she was not told about the existence of some of the decedent's gold coins acquired during their marriage, and that these coins were community assets. On August 13, 1992, she filed a creditor's claim against the estate in probate court. This claim was denied. On or about September 24, 1992, she sued the estate in the superior court, alleging, among other things, that the decedent had fraudulently concealed coins valued in excess of $10 million. Ten months later, the parties to thatPage: Previous 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 Next
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