In re Estate of Daniels

575 S.W.3d 841

In the ESTATE OF Terrance Stephen DANIELS, Deceased

No. 06-18-00049-CV

Court of Appeals of Texas, Texarkana.

Date Submitted: January 23, 2019

Date Decided: April 11, 2019

Samuel Cole - Lead Counsel, Sam Cole Legal Services, PLLC, 6721 Kemper Dr, Plano, TX 75023, Thomas D. Bowers III, Attorney at Law, 6363 N State Highway 161, Ste 450, Irving, TX 75038, for Appellant.

Chad Baruch - Lead Counsel, Randy Johnston, Johnston Tobey Baruch PC, 3308 Oak Grove Ave., Dallas, TX 75204, Peter D.King, Geary Porter & Donovan PC, 16475 Dallas Pkwy Ste 400, Addison, TX 75001-6837, for Appellee.

Before Morriss, C.J., Burgess and Stevens, JJ.

OPINION

Opinion by Justice Burgess

After Terrance Daniels' death, his widow, LaStarza Luckey Daniels, and a group of his other heirs filed competing applications for independent administration of his estate. After the homestead property was set aside and the temporary administrator conveyed the interests in the property to LaStarza and the heirs, LaStarza moved to dismiss the heirs and their pleadings for lack of standing. The trial court granted the motion.

On appeal, the heirs contend that the trial court erred in granting LaStarza’s motion to dismiss because they have standing as interested persons. We reverse the trial court’s order and remand the case for further proceedings because the heirs are interested persons with standing.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

Terrance Daniels died intestate and without children. In the County Court of Morris County, Texas, LaStarza filed an application to determine heirship and an application for independent administration of Terrance’s estate in which she sought to be appointed as administrator. Terrance’s mother, Jeannette Daniels, brother, Wesley D. Daniels, and sister, Anita Rhodes, (the Heirs) filed a competing application for independent administration in which they opposed LaStarza’s appointment as administrator and sought to have either Jeannette appointed as administrator or Jeannette, Wesley, and Anita appointed as co-administrators. The competing applications were assigned to a statutory probate judge,¹ the Honorable Oswin Chrisman, while the heirship application was heard by the county court.

The county court held that Terrance was survived by his spouse, LaStarza, his mother, Jeannette, his brother, Wesley, his sister, Anita, his two half-brothers, Derrick Brown and Dwayne Daniels, and one half-sister, Shana Brown.² The property in Terrance’s estate consisted of various community property, separate personal property, and separate real property. The court held that, under the laws of descent and distribution, LaStarza was entitled to all of the community property, all of the separate personal property, and one-half of the separate real property, which consisted of a house and lot in Naples, Morris County, Texas, which was the couple’s residence and homestead. The remaining one-half interest in the separate real property was to be distributed to the remaining heirs as follows: one-fourth to Jeannette, one-fourteenth each to Wesley and Anita, and one-twenty-eighth each to Dwayne, Derrick, and Shana.³

Judge Chrisman set the contested applications for jury trial and appointed LaStarza as temporary administrator until the contested issues were resolved. LaStarza filed an application to set aside the separate real property, the homestead, as property exempt from the estate administration. After an estate inventory, appraisement, and a list of claims were filed and approved, the trial court, over the Heirs' objection, granted LaStarza’s application to set aside the homestead for LaStarza’s lifetime use. As per the court’s order, LaStarza, as temporary administrator, conveyed legal title to the homestead to herself, in her personal capacity, and all of Terrance’s heirs in the shares previously determined by the county court.

About a month prior to trial, LaStarza moved to dismiss "all pleadings, claims and oppositions" of the Heirs because they lacked standing. In the motion, LaStarza argued that, because the homestead property had been removed from the estate administration and the Heirs had already received the only estate property to which they were entitled, they were no longer heirs with a "property right in or claim against an estate being administered." The Heirs filed a response opposing the motion. After a hearing, the trial court granted the motion, dismissed the Heirs' pleadings, and named LaStarza as administrator. The Heirs appeal.

II. Issue Presented—Do the Heirs Have Standing?

In their sole point of error on appeal, the Heirs contend that the trial court erred in granting LaStarza’s motion to dismiss because, as Terrance’s heirs, they are "interested persons" under the Texas Estates Code and therefore have standing.

A. Standard of Review

This Court considers "the trial court’s order on a motion to dismiss for lack of standing in the same manner as a plea to the jurisdiction." Estate of Lee , 551 S.W.3d 802, 807 (Tex. App.—Texarkana 2018, no pet.). "If the evidence creates a fact question regarding the jurisdictional issue, then the trial court cannot grant the plea to the jurisdiction, and the fact issue will be resolved by the fact[-]finder." Tex. Dep't of Parks & Wildlife v. Miranda , 133 S.W.3d 217, 227–28 (Tex. 2004). But if no fact issue exists, the trial court decides the plea as a matter of law. Id. at 228. We review a trial court’s determination of standing de novo.⁴ Frost Nat'l Bank v. Fernandez , 315 S.W.3d 494, 502 (Tex. 2010) (subject-matter jurisdiction includes the issue of standing).

B. Analysis

1. Applicable Law

Standing "focuses on whether a party has a sufficient relationship with the lawsuit so as to have a ‘justiciable interest’ in its outcome." Austin Nursing Ctr., Inc. v. Lovato , 171 S.W.3d 845, 848 (Tex. 2005). A party whose standing has been challenged must prove that he has an interest in the estate. In re Estate of Forister , 421 S.W.3d 175, 177 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2013, pet. denied). As the Texas Supreme Court noted in Logan v. Thomason :

[T]he burden is on every person contesting a will, and on every person offering one for probate, to allege, and, if required, to prove, that he has some legally ascertained pecuniary interest, real or prospective, absolute or contingent, which will be impaired or benefited, or in some manner materially affected, by the probate of the will.

Logan v. Thomason , 146 Tex. 37, 202 S.W.2d 212, 215 (1947).⁵ A litigant must maintain standing throughout the proceedings. Wassmer v. Hopper , 463 S.W.3d 513, 523 (Tex. App.—El Paso 2014, no pet.).

Under the Texas Estates Code, only an "interested person" has standing to apply for letters of administration or challenge an application for letters of administration. TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 301.051(2)(B) (West Supp. 2018), § 301.101 (West 2014). An interested person is defined as "an heir, devisee, spouse, creditor, or any other having a property right in or claim against an estate being administered."⁶ TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 22.018(1) (West 2014). The Texas Estates Code defines an heir as "a person who is entitled under the statutes of descent and distribution to a part of the estate of a decedent who dies intestate." TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 22.015 (West 2014). An estate consists of the decedent’s property, as that property exists originally, as it is augmented by accretions and additions, and as it is diminished by decreases or distributions from the property. TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 22.012 (West 2014).

2. Discussion

Here, the Heirs maintain that they have standing because they are, and the county court found them to be, Terrance’s heirs, entitled to portions of his estate. It is undisputed that, at the time the Heirs filed their applications and objections in this case, they were heirs under Section 22.015 and interested persons under Section 22.018(1). However, LaStarza argued that, once the homestead property was set aside and the temporary administrator conveyed them their respective shares of the property,⁷ (1) the Heirs were no longer interested persons because they no longer had a pecuniary interest in the case—that is, "a property right in or claim against an estate being administered," TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 22.018(1), and (2) the Heirs no longer satisfied the statutory definition of "heir" because they were no longer entitled to a part of the estate. TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 22.015. The trial court agreed with LaStarza and granted the motion to dismiss, finding in part that the Heirs no longer had a "contestable issue in the case."

We first address whether the Heirs can be interested persons without a pecuniary interest in the estate. Because Section 22.018 defines "interested person" in the disjunctive, one is an interested person if they are an "heir, devisee, spouse, [or] creditor" or one who has a "property right in" or a "claim against" the estate being administered. Matter of Estate of Holley , No. 11-15-00173-CV, 2017 WL 549009, at *3 (Tex. App.—Eastland Feb. 10, 2017, pet. denied) (mem. op.) (quoting TEX. EST. CODE ANN . § 22.018(1) ); see also Aguirre , 2006 WL 2871339, at *3 (surviving spouse without a pecuniary interest in the estate had standing to demand accounting). Accordingly, if one is not an heir, devisee, spouse, or creditor, then one must have a property right in or a claim against the estate to be an interested person. Holley , 2017 WL 549009, at *3 ; In re Estate of Forister , 421 S.W.3d 175, 177 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 2013, pet. denied). However, an interested person does not have to be both "(1) an heir, devisee, spouse, or creditor and (2) a person with a property right in or claim against the estate." Holley , 2017 WL 549009, at *3. Therefore, as long as the Heirs meet the statutory definition of "heir" under Section 22.015, they are "interested persons" under Section 12.018(1), even if they do not have a pecuniary interest in the estate. See id. ; Aguirre , 2006 WL 2871339, at *3.

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