Paul Oleksiuk’s legacy included an intricate probate puzzle. His 2012 will revoked his 2011 will. He died in 2014 before finalizing a revision to a 2012 will. However, on June 9, 2017, a Cook County judge ruled that the 2012 will didn’t qualify for admission to probate because it wasn’t…
The day before Eugene Lay died from lung cancer in January 2016, he allegedly signed a will that revoked his 1979 will. The new will left all of his assets to Delbert Miller. However, when Beverly Kelton, a legatee under the earlier 1979 will, challenged the 2016 testament, a judge…
Mary Dicks died on Sept. 25, 2012. Her granddaughter, Jennifer Barber, was her closest living relative and her only heir. Barber claimed that Dicks died intestate and filed a petition to be named administrator of her estate. However, Allison Ferconio, who was Dicks’s niece, filed a will with the Circuit…
In an Illinois Appellate Court decision, it was found that a trust’s beneficiaries had sufficient minimum contact with the state simply through their ownership interest of a trust administered by an Illinois resident. In May 2012, a Cook County associate court judge dismissed the trust dispute case for lack of…
The Illinois Appellate Court has affirmed a decision by a Cook County probate judge regarding the admission of a will. Jozef Opiela died in January 1975. He purportedly left a will dated March 1972, as well as a codicil to the will that was dated August 1972. Under the terms…