Rogers v. Pratt

Decision Date05 May 2020
Docket NumberNo. 117,671,117,671
Parties Robinson Kenneth ROGERS, Plaintiff/Appellant, v. Estate of Judith K. PRATT Deceased, Defendant/Appellee.
CourtOklahoma Supreme Court

Kimberly Adams, Monte Brown, McAlester, Oklahoma, For Plaintiff/Appellant.

Bill Layden, Jim B. Miller, McAlester, Oklahoma, For Defendant/Appellee.

KAUGER, J.:

¶1 We granted certiorari to address whether a child placed for adoption was a pretermitted heir under the terms of the will. We hold that the child placed for adoption qualifies as a pretermitted heir and that the evidence was insufficient to show that the omission was intentional.1

FACTS

¶2 On June 5, 1962, the decedent, Judith K. Pratt (birth mother/Pratt) gave birth to a baby boy in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Shortly after birth, Eicie and A.K. Rogers adopted the baby boy on June 7, 1962, naming him Robinson Kenneth Rogers (son/Rogers). The birth mother later married Leland Pratt, but she had no other children.

¶3 Sometime in approximately 1980, the birth mother and her son reconnected, after she found him working in Ardmore, Oklahoma. The two established a relationship and he lived with Pratt and her husband in Texas for 6 or 7 months after his adoptive father died. Rogers also met Pratt's sisters, Carlene and Patricia. After Rogers moved back to Ardmore, he talked to his birth mother a couple of times on the phone, but then lost track of her.

¶4 Pratt's husband died in 2007. Prior to his death, she was very social and family oriented. She often visited and spent holidays with family and friends. After her husband's death, Pratt became depressed and isolated herself from friends and family.

¶5 By the summer of 2017, Pratt was chronically ill with lung cancer

. She had let her house deteriorate around her. She had no running water or working septic, and she stayed in an RV next to the dilapidated house. In July of 2017, Pratt contacted a lawyer to do estate planning. She also moved in with Cerita Morley (Morley), so that Morley could help care for her.

¶6 Morley called the lawyer on September 6, 2017, to notify him that Pratt was in bad shape, was going to have a medical procedure, and that she needed her estate planning done by September 13, 2017. On September 13, 2017, Pratt appointed Morley and Morley's daughter, Stacey Parker (Parker), as co-agents for durable power of attorney for healthcare.

¶7 On September 14, 2017, Pratt had a procedure to insert a mediport for lung cancer

treatment. During this procedure, the doctor discovered a large protruding mass on her anus. Apparently, she had discovered it two years earlier, but never sought treatment due to embarrassment. On the way home from the procedure, Morley drove Pratt to her lawyer's office where he delivered her a drafted will to her car. Pratt picked up the will from her car after having been under anesthesia and had been taking Xanax as well as oxycodone at the time. The next day, she executed her last will and testament in her bed at Morely's house in front of two witnesses and a notary. Although she did not know the witnesses or notary, they all agreed she was aware of what she was doing, and that she appeared very competent.

¶8 The will provided in pertinent part:

I, Judith Pratt, a resident of McAlester, Pittsburg County, State of Oklahoma, being of sound mind, being in good health and sensible of the uncertainly of life and the certainty of death, and desiring to make disposition of all my affairs, do hereby declare the following to be my Last Will and Testament, hereby revoking any and all other Wills and Codicils that I previously may have executed.
SECTION 1
I further state and declare that I am a widow; that my husband, Leland Pratt, has predeceased me; that I have no children. I further state that I have numerous other living relatives and that it is my specific intention that they or their heirs receive absolutely nothing from my estate, except as stated hereinafter. Any legatee or devisee hereinafter named in the Will shall not be deemed to have survived me if he or she dies within sixty (60) days of my death....
SECTION VII
All the rest, residue and remainder of my property, of every nature and description, and of every kind and wheresoever situated, whether vested or contingent at the time of my death and whether acquired before or after the execution of this my last Will and Testament including in such rest, residue and remainder, and property over which at the time of my death, I shall have any power of testamentary disposition, I give, devise, and bequeath to the following persons in equal shares, share and share alike, to wit:
Tonnah Johnson, Rocky C. Johnson, Cerita Morley, Frankie Johnson, Rocky W. Johnson, Geoffrey C. Morley, Samatha Morley Parker, Tina Johnson, Stay Parker and Bobby Parker.

The will also made a few specific bequests to a few other people, and directed that Pratt's real property, vehicles, trailer, guns, antiques, items located on the real property, and coins and jewelry be sold with the proceeds applied to Section VII.

¶9 In January of 2018, Pratt moved from Morley's house into Parker's house (Morley's daughter) for continued care. According to Parker, Pratt referred to her as her niece, but in reality, Parker's brother was married to Pratt's actual niece. Pratt died at Parker's house on June 5, 2018, and her family was not notified of the death. On June 13, 2018, Morley, as personal representative, filed Pratt's will with her Petition for Probate in the District Court of Pittsburg County, Oklahoma.

¶10 On July 25, 2018, Pratt's sister, Carlene Wheller filed an objection to the petition to probate the will and appointment of an executor. She alleged that Morley and her daughter, Parker, were Pratt's primary caregivers and they unduly influenced Pratt to procure the will, leaving them to substantially benefit by it. She also alleged that Pratt lacked the testamentary capacity to execute the will.

¶11 On July 27, 2018, Rogers filed an application for his share of Pratt's estate as a pretermitted child. On September 5, 2018, Rogers also filed an objection to admission of the will, insisting that Pratt was not competent or free from duress, menace, fraud or undue influence when she made her will. The cause proceeded to trial on October 23, 2018. A dozen witnesses participated in the proceedings including: the attorney who drafted the will, the woman who notarized the will, the two witnesses to the will, Rogers, Parker, Pratt's sister Pat, Pat's daughter, three of Pratt's friends, and Pratt's doctor who performed the mediport procedure.

¶12 On November 20, 2018, the trial court entered a minute order admitting the will to probate. It also denied Rogers' application for appointment as personal representative, but reserved the issue of his share as an omitted child for another hearing. The next day, Rogers filed a motion for reconsideration and/or a stay of the proceedings. The trial court held a hearing on the motion for reconsideration on December 19, 2018.

¶13 On December 27, 2018, the trial court held that:

1. The will was not ambiguous;
2. Pratt's statement that she had no children was presumably false; and
3. Pratt's statement combined with a complete disposition of her estate evidenced an intent to exclude Rogers.

Consequently, the court denied Rogers' application for his share as an omitted child. On January 3, 2019, the trial court entered an order incorporating previous rulings into a final ruling admitting the will to probate.

¶14 On January 7, 2019, Rogers appealed. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed. We granted certiorari on February 10, 2020, to address the issue of how an adoption affects the rights of a child to inherit from a biological parent.

I.

THE CHILD PLACED FOR ADOPTION QUALIFIES AS A PRETERMITTED HEIR.

¶15 The estate admits that an adopted child is entitled to inherit from both biological and adoptive parents, but argues that Rogers was intentionally omitted from the will because Pratt stated that she had no children and she otherwise disposed of her entire estate to specific beneficiaries. Rogers argues that he was a pretermitted heir under the will and that there is no evidence that Pratt intended to intentionally exclude him under the will.

A.

Pursuant to In The Matter of Estate of Flowers, 1993 OK 19, 848 P.2d 1146 , the Adoption Decree Coupled With The Will's False Statements That The Testatrix Had No Children Renders the Will Ambiguous.

¶16 In In re the Estate of Fred Franklin James v. Raunikar, 2020 OK 7, ––– P.3d ––––, we recently discussed a child or children as a pretermitted heir(s). We said in paragraphs 17-20:

¶17 Disposing of property is an inalienable natural right throughout a person's lifetime.2 However, the method of disposition of property after death and the right of inheritance are statutory.3 The Oklahoma Legislature provided for wills and trust as a means of disposing of one's property at death.4 The Oklahoma pretermitted heir statute, 84 O.S. 2011 § 132, provides a statutory method of inheritance for children whom a testator unintentionally fails to provide for or name in a will.5 It is not a limitation on a testator's power to dispose of his or her property. Rather, it is an assurance that a child is not unintentionally omitted from a will. It provides:
When any testator omits to provide in his will for any of his children, or for the issue of any deceased child unless it appears that such omission was intentional, such child, or the issue of such child, must have the same share in the estate of the testator, as if he had died intestate, and succeeds thereto as provided in the preceding section.
The pretermitted heir statute does not secure a child with a minimum statutory share of a parent's estate upon the death of a parent.6 The purpose of the statute is merely to protect an issue's right to take, unless the will gives a clear expression of intentional omission.7 By the terms of the statute, it must "appear" that
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