This week, the Court addresses the application of the probate exception to federal-court jurisdiction.
ROGER SILK V. BARON BOND & HOWARD B. MILLER
The Court holds that the probate-exception bar to federal-court jurisdiction does not apply when a breach-of-contract plaintiff seeks both damages from a decedent's Estate and an appraisal to calculate the amount of those damages.
The panel: Judges Watford, Friedland, and Bennett, with Judge Bennett writing the opinion.
Key highlight: "[T]he question is not whether we would somehow be duplicating the function of the probate court, or deciding a question the probate court will (or might) need to decide. And as the Supreme Court has also told us, the question is not whether we would be interfering with the probate court. If the district court would neither be probating or annulling a will (it wouldn't be here), or administering a decedent's estate (and again, it wouldn't be here), the only question is whether it would be assuming in rem jurisdiction over property that is in the custody of the probate court, including by endeavoring to dispose of such property." (Quotation marks, citations, and alterations omitted.)
Background: Frank Bond "hated paying income taxes." So he hired Roger Silk for various financial services, including tax-...
