Estate of Kuralt, In re

• Decision Date: 25 May 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-582,98-582
• Court: Montana Supreme Court
• Parties: In re the ESTATE OF Charles KURALT, Deceased.

Page 771

981 P.2d 771

1999 MT 111

In re the ESTATE OF Charles KURALT, Deceased.

No. 98-582.

Supreme Court of Montana.

Submitted on Briefs Feb. 11, 1999.

Decided May 25, 1999.

James H. Goetz, Brian M. Morris; Goetz, Gallik, Baldwin &Dolan, Bozeman, Montana, For Appellant.

Todd R. Hillier; Schraudner & Hillier, Bozeman, Montana, William S. Dockins; Williams, Jent & Dockins, Bozeman, Montana, For Respondent.

Justice W. WILLIAM LEAPHART delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 On July 4, 1997, Charles Kuralt (Mr. Kuralt) died in a hospital in New York City. His widow, Suzanna "Petie" Baird Kuralt (Petie), thereafter filed a petition in the state courts of New York for probate of his estate. On September 15, 1997, Petie, as the Domiciliary Foreign Personal Representative of the Estate of Charles Kuralt (the Estate), secured Montana counsel and filed a Proof of Authority pursuant to § 72-4-309, MCA (1995), in the Fifth Judicial District Court, Madison County, seeking to probate certain real and personal property owned by Mr. Kuralt in Madison County, Montana.

¶2 On September 30, 1997, Appellant Patricia Elizabeth Shannon (Shannon), an intimate companion of Mr. Kuralt for nearly thirty years, filed a Petition for Ancillary Probate of Will. This petition challenged the application of Mr. Kuralt's New York will to the real and personal property in Madison County. In part, the basis for Shannon's petition was a letter, dated June 18, 1997, which she had received from Mr. Kuralt shortly before his death indicating that he intended Shannon to "inherit" 90 acres along the Big Hole River. Shannon claimed that the letter constituted a valid holographic will that entitled her to Mr. Kuralt's real property in Madison County and, therefore, that the property should not be allowed to pass under the antecedent terms of Mr. Kuralt's New York will.

¶3 The Estate filed a Response and Objections to Petition for Ancillary Probate on November 10, 1997. On December 5, 1997, a hearing on Shannon's petition was set for March 3, 1998. Deposition and written discovery ensued. On the day of the scheduled March 3, 1998, hearing, the Estate filed a Motion for Summary Judgment and accompanying brief, arguing that Mr. Kuralt's June 18, 1997 letter expressed, at most, only a future intent to make a will, but not a present testamentary intent to devise the Montana property to Shannon. ¹

¶4 Notwithstanding the Estate's pending motion for summary judgment, the evidentiary hearing on Shannon's petition began on March 3, 1998, with the presentation of Shannon's case in chief. Thus, on March 3 and 4, 1998, the District Court heard "extrinsic evidence" bearing upon Mr. Kuralt's intent in writing the letter of June 18, 1997. This evidence showed, inter alia, that Mr. Kuralt had already transferred 20 acres of his land along the Big Hole River to Shannon in 1997, and that although that transaction had been structured as a "sale," it had been in substance a gift because Mr. Kuralt had secretly supplied the $80,000 in purchase money to Shannon before the ostensible transfer took place. Further, this extrinsic evidence suggested that, prior to Mr. Kuralt's fatal illness, Mr. Kuralt and Shannon had planned to transfer the remaining 90 acres of Mr. Kuralt's property along the Big Hole River in the same manner--as a sham "sale"-gift transaction--in the fall of 1998.

¶5 On April 30, 1998, the District Court heard argument on the Estate's motion for summary judgment and thereafter, on May 26, 1998, entered an Order and Memorandum granting partial summary judgment to the Estate. ² In this order, the court agreed with the Estate's position and held that the June 18, 1997 letter "clearly contemplates a separate testamentary instrument not yet in existence to accomplish the transfer of the Montana property." Shannon appeals from the order of the District Court granting partial summary judgment to the Estate. We reverse the District Court and remand for trial because there are genuine issues of material fact.

Issues Presented

¶6 There are two issues on appeal:

¶7 (1.) Was the District Court correct in concluding that summary judgment was appropriate because the evidence raised no genuine issues of material fact?

¶8 (2.) Did the District Court err in concluding that the letter of June 18, 1997, was not a valid holographic will because it expressed no present testamentary intent?

Factual Background

¶9 Mr. Kuralt and Shannon first met in 1968 in Reno, Nevada, when Mr. Kuralt brought his CBS show "On the Road" to Reno to cover the creation and dedication of the "Pat Baker Park," a project which Shannon had spearheaded. During that weekend, Mr. Kuralt, a married man, invited Shannon to dinner. Thus began a protracted personal relationship between Mr. Kuralt and Shannon, lasting nearly thirty years until Mr. Kuralt's untimely death on July 4, 1997. Mr. Kuralt and Shannon took pains over the years to keep their relationship secret, and were so successful in doing so that even though his wife, Petie, knew that Mr. Kuralt owned property in Montana, she was unaware, prior to Mr. Kuralt's death, of his relationship with Shannon.

¶10 From 1968 to 1978, Shannon and Mr. Kuralt saw each other every two-to-three weeks for several days at a time. Indeed, Mr. Kuralt maintained close contact by telephone and mail, and spent a majority of his non-working time with Shannon during this ten-year period. Although Mr. Kuralt and Shannon spent less time together over the remaining twenty years of their relationship, they maintained meaningful personal and financial ties. The couple regularly vacationed together, frequently traveling around the United States, as well as Europe.

¶11 Mr. Kuralt also established close, personal relationships with Shannon's three children, acting as a surrogate father and providing them with emotional and material support which continued into their adult lives. For example, Mr. Kuralt paid the entire tuition for Shannon's eldest daughter to attend law school and for Shannon's son to attend graduate school. Over the years, in fact, Mr. Kuralt was the "primary source of support" for Shannon and her children, providing them with substantial sums of money on a regular basis--usually $5,000 to $8,000 per month.

¶12 In the 1980s, Mr. Kuralt and Shannon formed a limited partnership called "San Francisco Stocks," which packaged and sold frozen cooking stocks. Mr. Kuralt provided all the capital for the partnership, while Shannon and her two children ran the day-to-day operations of the business. San Francisco Stocks operated for approximately five years, closing in 1988. At that time, Shannon moved to London, England, where Mr. Kuralt paid for Shannon to study landscape gardening at the Inchbald School of Design. During this time period, Mr. Kuralt and Shannon traveled regularly around Ireland.

¶13 In 1985, Mr. Kuralt purchased a home in Ireland and then deeded the property to Shannon as a gift. That same year, Mr. Kuralt purchased a 20-acre parcel of property along the Big Hole River in Madison County, near Twin Bridges, Montana. On this parcel, Mr. Kuralt and Shannon constructed a North Carolina-style cabin. In 1987, Mr. Kuralt purchased two additional parcels along the Big Hole River which adjoined the 20-acre parcel, one parcel upstream and the other parcel downstream of the cabin. These two additional parcels constitute approximately 90 acres, and are the primary subject of this appeal. Also in 1987, Mr. Kuralt purchased the old Pageville Schoolhouse located on Montana Highway 41 between Twin Bridges and Dillon, and Mr. Kuralt and Shannon moved the old schoolhouse to one of the newly-purchased parcels with plans to renovate the structure and utilize it as a retirement home.

¶14 On May 3, 1989, Mr. Kuralt executed a holographic will, which stated as follows:

May 3, 1989

In the event of my death, I bequeath to Patricia Elizabeth Shannon all my interest in land, buildings, furnishings and personal belongings on Burma Road, Twin Bridges, Montana.

Charles Kuralt

34 Bank St.

New York, N.Y. 10014

Mr. Kuralt mailed a copy of this holographic will to Shannon.

¶15 However, Mr. Kuralt thereafter executed a formal will, on May 4, 1994, in New York City. In this will, Mr. Kuralt proclaimed: "I, CHARLES KURALT, a resident of the City, County and State of New York, declare this to be my Last Will and Testament and revoke all my prior wills and codicils." With respect to real property owned by Mr. Kuralt, the will provided:

TWO: I devise all my real property (including any condominium) which is used by me as a residence or for vacation purposes, together with the buildings and improvements thereon, if any, to my wife, PETIE, if she shall survive me.

....

FIVE: All the residue and remainder of my property and estate, real and personal, of whatever nature and wherever situate, including any property not effectively disposed of by the foregoing provisions of this Will, but excluding any property over which I have any power of appointment or disposal which power I hereby expressly do not exercise (hereinafter referred to as my "residuary estate"), I dispose of as follows: [the will then proceeds to gift the entire residuary estate outright to Petie, except for a credit shelter trust benefiting the Kuralts' two children].

The will makes no specific mention of the description or location of any of the real property, in Montana or elsewhere, that had been owned by Mr. Kuralt. The beneficiaries under Mr. Kuralt's Last Will and Testament are his wife, Petie, and the Kuralts' two children; neither Shannon nor her children are named as beneficiaries. In fact, Shannon was not even aware that Mr. Kuralt had executed his Last Will and Testament until institution of the probate proceedings at issue in this appeal.

¶16 On April 9, 1997, Mr. Kuralt deeded his interest in the original 20-acre parcel with the cabin along the Big Hole River to Shannon. Although Shannon...