- 9 -
reached by the State court were that the Abagail ranch was
property includable in the probate estate of decedent and that
Ms. Williams held title to the ranch in constructive trust for
the estate of decedent. Among the conclusions of law reached by
the State court were the following:
4. The first issue to be resolved is ownership of
the Abagail Ranch. Gail claims to have purchased the
ranch in 1981 from Theodore. There was no evidence
presented that Theodore agreed to sell the ranch to
Gail in 1981 or that he considered the ranch sold to
Gail. In fact, the evidence demonstrated that he
considered the ranch as his own as reflected in his
1992 correspondence with Musser and the 1995 Will.
Gail presented no evidence of payment for the ranch -
no checks, credit card bills or any other written
evidence of payment to Theodore from 1981 to the date
of trial. The Court concludes that Gail did not
purchase any portion of the Abagail Ranch at any time.
5. Gail also claims that she acquired the Abagail
Ranch in 1995 by virtue of the claimed payments over
the years. In support of this claim, Gail produced two
deeds describing the identical portion of the Abagail
Ranch and both from Theodore and his wife Bette to Gail
- one dated August 1995 and the other December 1995
* * * . The deeds were ostensibly introduced at trial
to reflect a transfer of ownership to Gail in 1995.
Gail admitted that the August deed was defective and
had to be redone with the December deed. The August
and December 1995 deeds both indicate that all of the
consideration had been provided, but Gail admitted that
at the time of Theodore’s death (January 1996), she
owed Theodore as much as $40,000-$60,000.
6. There was no credible evidence that Gail
provided Theodore with any consideration for any
portion of the Abagail Ranch at any time. It was
within Gail’s ability to produce some documentary
evidence reflecting any payment for the ranch if it
existed. In light of this absence of what should have
been available evidence, the Court concludes that no
payments were ever made to Theodore by Gail for any
portion of the Abagail Ranch. In addition, there was
nothing in Theodore’s 1995 tax return, prepared at
Page: Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 Next
Last modified: May 25, 2011