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FINDINGS OF FACT
Some of the facts have been stipulated and are so found.
A. Decedent, Her Family, and Decedent’s Estate
Decedent died testate on August 8, 1997, at the age of 88.
She resided in Alhambra, California, at that time. Decedent’s
son, Franklin T. Bigelow, Jr. (Mr. Bigelow), is the executor of
decedent’s estate. He was also her attorney in fact pursuant to
a durable power of attorney from 1986 until she died. Mr.
Bigelow resided in Altadena, California, when the petition in
this case was filed.
Decedent was survived by Mr. Bigelow, her daughter Virginia
L. Burke (Mrs. Burke), and nine grandchildren. Decedent’s
husband had died in 1966, and her daughter Katharine B.
Fitzgerald (Mrs. Fitzgerald) had died in 1996.
B. The Sand Point Road Property
In 1963, decedent and her husband purchased as their
principal residence a house on Sand Point Road (then called
Spindrift Lane), in Carpinteria, California (the Sand Point Road
property). Decedent became the sole owner of that property in
1966 when her husband died. She lived there until 1992.
Decedent gave each of her three children a 1/175th undivided
interest in the Sand Point Road property in 1990 or 1991. The
Sand Point Road property was worth $1,750,000 at that time.
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