Estate of Dobbins, In re

• Decision Date: 14 September 1998
• Citation: 987 S.W.2d 30
• Parties: In re ESTATE OF Mark DOBBINS, Deceased.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 30

987 S.W.2d 30

In re ESTATE OF Mark DOBBINS, Deceased.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee.

Sept. 14, 1998.

Application for Permission to Appeal

Denied by Supreme Court

Feb. 8, 1999.

Fred M. Ridolphi, Jr., Humphreys Dunlap Wellford Acuff & Stanton, Memphis, Tennessee, Attorney for Plaintiff/Appellant Eddie Joy Dobbins.

Charles G. Black, Memphis, Tennessee, Attorney for Defendant/Appellee Earthie Dobbins.

W. Meredith Clark, Memphis, Tennessee, Attorney for Defendant/Appellee Betty Dobbins.

FARMER, J.

On January 28, 1992, Mark Dobbins was accidentally shot and killed at the Orpheum Theater in Memphis at the age of 17. The appellant, Eddie Joy Dobbins, is Mark's paternal grandmother in whose custody he had remained for the seven years preceding his death. Following Mark's death, Eddie Joy ¹ filed three wrongful death lawsuits, individually and as next friend for her grandson, against David Industries, Rita Garth and the Memphis Development Foundation, respectively. The lawsuits were ultimately settled for a net total of approximately $119,000. Thereafter, the probate court issued letters of administration to Mark's uncle, George Dobbins, Jr., for the purpose of distributing the settlement proceeds which comprised the entire estate. Mark's natural parents, Earthie Dobbins and Betty Hinds Dobbins, petitioned the court to require the administrator to distribute to them their respective share of the proceeds. Eddie Joy opposed such distribution, asserting that the parents had abandoned their son prior to his death and that she was therefore entitled to the entire proceeds. Betty then moved for summary judgment and Earthie, for partial summary judgment, asserting their entitlement to the funds. The probate court interpreted the wrongful death statutes to conclude that only the natural parents of Mark were entitled to receive the settlement proceeds and granted the motions. ² After further hearing, the court held that Eddie Joy was entitled to be reimbursed from the net proceeds distributed to Earthie for certain child support payments for which he was in arrears. ³ Eddie Joy has appealed from the trial court's decision. Upon review of the record, we affirm for the reasons hereinafter stated.

Mark Dobbins was born in December 1974 to Betty and Earthie Dobbins. They had one other child, Yvonne Marie Dobbins. They were divorced in 1976 with Betty receiving custody of the children. Earthie was ordered to pay child support. In March 1985, Earthie petitioned the juvenile court to remove Mark and his sister from Betty's custody and to place them in the custody of his parents, Eddie Joy and George Dobbins, Sr. The court approved the petition upon finding the children to be dependent and neglected and awarded the custody of both children to their paternal grandparents. Mark remained in his grandparents' custody until his death. ⁴ Mark was not married at the time of his death and had no children.

In December 1995, Betty and Earthie filed similar petitions with the probate court claiming to be the deceased's sole heirs at law and requesting that the settlement proceeds be distributed in accordance with the laws of intestate succession. Eddie Joy answered the petitions, denying their entitlement to any of the proceeds and asserting that she had "expended substantial sums of money" in fulfilling her custodial responsibilities regarding Mark for which she sought reimbursement; that Earthie was in substantial arrears in child support payments to her at the time of Mark's death, which called for the dismissal of his petition in accordance with T.C.A. § 31-2-105(b); ⁵ and that both Earthie and Betty had "abandoned" their rights to the proceeds. Eddie Joy requested that both petitions be dismissed and that the administrator make immediate distribution to her of all monies to which she was entitled. The administrator also filed answers to the petitions.

As hereinabove noted, both Earthie and Betty moved for summary or partial summary judgment. Eddie Joy filed a memorandum in opposition to the motions asserting that genuine issues of material fact existed as to whether Earthie and Betty had surrendered their parental rights to Mark due to their abandonment of him several years preceding his death and had thus foregone any right to recover the proceeds. Eddie Joy relied upon the statutory definition of abandonment set forth under T.C.A. § 36-1-113, pertaining to the termination of parental rights, and claimed that the actions of both parents with regard to their son met the criteria outlined thereunder. Her affidavit states that, after the change in custody, Betty never financially supported her son and maintained "virtually no contact whatsoever" with him and that Earthie made no financial contribution toward the support of his son after 1988 and only saw him for a period of approximately two to three weeks, after which time he "had virtually no contact" with Mark. The affidavit further states that Eddie Joy and her husband gave Mark financial and emotional support and raised him as if he were their own son at a time when his natural parents failed to do so. A similar affidavit was submitted by Retha Partee, Earthie's sister. The depositions of Betty and Earthie were also submitted for the court's consideration.

In granting the respective motions, the trial court found as follows:

The Respondent ... claims that questions as to the Petitioners' abandonment of their son create genuine issues of material fact and therefore summary judgment should not be granted.

.... The Respondent and the Petitioners are in agreement that no legal proceedings had been brought prior to the [sic] Mark's death, seeking to adjudicate his having been abandoned by Betty and Earthie Dobbins. Additionally there is no dispute as to the fact that Eddie Joy and George Dobbins never adopted Mark.

....

... The often followed Tennessee Supreme Court case of Memphis Railway Company v. Cooper, , 313 S.W.2d 444 (1958), clearly states that the distribution of wrongful death proceeds falls under Tennessee's wrongful death statute. Memphis Railway Company v. Cooper, , 313 S.W.2d 444, 448 (1958). The applicable Tennessee wrongful death statute for this cause is T.C.A. Sec. 20-5-106(a) ...

....

In applying T.C.A. Sec. 20-5-106(a) to the facts of this case, the Court believes the only persons who would be entitled to receive the proceeds of the wrongful death lawsuits in place of his natural parents would be legally adoptive parents. The facts of this case are clear that the minor child was never legally adopted by anyone. At the time of his death, Mark's legal parents were Earthie and Betty Dobbins. It is true that Mark was in the custody of his grandparents at the time of his death, but there had been no adoption proceedings.

... If T.C.A. Sec. 20-5-106 required the Court to examine the worthiness of the beneficiary of wrongful death proceeds, then abandonment would unquestionably be a material fact in determining to whom the proceeds should be distributed....

....

... There is no language in the Tennessee wrongful death statute that permits this Court to enter into considerations as to the worthiness or lack of worthiness of beneficiaries of proceeds from wrongful death lawsuits.

Because the question of worthiness of the beneficiaries of wrongful death proceeds is outside this Court's consideration, so too is an examination as to whether the [sic] Mark was abandoned by his parents.... Accordingly there remains no genuine dispute of material fact in the consideration of who is entitled under T.C.A. Sec. 20-5-106 to the wrongful death proceeds of the Decedent.

Consequently, the court concluded that Earthie and Betty were entitled to their respective share of the net proceeds, but recognized that an issue remained as to whether Earthie had waived his right to his share with respect to the suit against the Memphis Development Foundation.

Eddie Joy moved to alter or amend the judgment on the basis that the trial court had failed to address (1) the applicability of T.C.A. § 31-2-105(b); (2) whether she was entitled to be reimbursed out of the funds held by the court for the reasonable and necessary expenses incurred in raising Mark and his sister while they were in her legal custody; and (3) whether Earthie had effectively waived his right to any of the proceeds in Mark's estate by executing a receipt and waiver. After further hearing, the court denied the motion with respect to the applicability of T.C.A. § 31-2-105(b). The court also ruled that Eddie Joy lacked standing to contest the validity of the purported waiver by Earthie because she was not entitled to receive any of the wrongful death proceeds under the wrongful death statute, nor was she entitled to inherit any part of Mark's estate under the laws of intestate succession. The court found that the only person who could lawfully challenge the validity of the waiver was Betty who had declined to do so. Thus, the court held that Earthie was also entitled to his respective share of the net proceeds resulting from the Memphis Development Foundation lawsuit. ⁶ Finally, the court held that Eddie Joy was entitled to reimbursement for child support.

We perceive the issue on appeal as whether the trial court was correct in its decision that Eddie Joy is not entitled to receive any of the wrongful death settlement proceeds recovered as a result of the death of her grandson. Resolution of this issue entails a proper interpretation of the wrongful death statutes, particularly T.C.A. § 20-5-106, which read as follows at the time the wrongful death lawsuits were instituted:

Injury resulting in death--Succession to cause of action--Beneficiary who is minor or legally incompetent.--(a) The right of action which a person, who dies from injuries received from another, or whose death is caused by the wrongful act, omission, or killing by another, would have had against the wrongdoer, in case death had not...