Friedman v. Hannan

• Decision Date: 14 January 2010
• Docket Number: No. 3 September Term, 2009.,3 September Term, 2009.
• Citation: 987 A.2d 60,412 Md. 328
• Parties: Lydia FRIEDMAN, et al. v. Jerome B. HANNAN.
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

987 A.2d 60

412 Md. 328

Lydia FRIEDMAN, et al. v. Jerome B. HANNAN.

No. 3 September Term, 2009.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

January 14, 2010.

Stephen S. Winegrad (Winegrad, Hess, Friedman & Levitt, LLC, Owings, MD), on brief, for Petitioners.

F. Gregory Shepperd, Baltimore, MD, for Respondent.

ARGUED BEFORE BELL, C.J., HARRELL, BATTAGLIA, GREENE, MURPHY, ADKINS and BARBERA, JJ.

ADKINS, Judge.

In this case we interpret Section 4-105(4) of Md.Code (1974, 2001 Repl.Vol.) Estates & Trusts Article ("ET"), which directs that provisions in a will "relating to the spouse" be revoked upon divorce from that person. We hold that the automatic revocation provision of ET Section 4-105(4) is not limited to bequests to a former spouse, and may include bequests to a former spouse's family members. A court should utilize the terms of the will and circumstances surrounding its execution to determine whether a bequest "relat[es] to the spouse" within the meaning of Section 4-105(4).

On appeal de novo from the Orphans' Court for Baltimore City, the Circuit Court for Baltimore City was called upon to construe the will of James Patrick Hannan ("Decedent"). The Decedent was married at the time he executed the will, but was divorced before his death. There is no dispute that after the divorce, all testamentary bequests made to Decedent's former spouse were revoked by operation of ET Section 4-105(4). The question at issue involves the status of Decedent's bequests to "those surv[iv]ing immediate family members of my Wife[.]" The former spouse's immediate family members, (Lydia Friedman, Patricia Tolley, Barbara Graves, Genia Covert, Kelley Gallagher and Kimberly Shike [collectively, "Friedman"]) appealed from the trial court's decision that the marital dissolution revoked their legacies. The Court of Specials ("CSA") affirmed, and we, in turn, affirm the intermediate appellate court.

FACTS & LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

The facts in this case are simple and uncontested. On June 5, 1981, James Hannan married Anna Zelinski.¹ No children were born to them during the marriage. At some point, the two separated, and later divorced on February 6, 2001. As part of the separation, both parties entered into a property settlement agreement. Zelinski testified that Decedent met all of his obligations under that agreement.² Decedent subsequently died on September 10, 2006. He had never remarried.

This action involves a will that Decedent executed during his marriage to Zelinski ("the Will"),³ the relevant provisions of which state:

ITEM TWO: I appoint as Executor of this, my Last Will and Testament, provided she shall survive me, my Wife, ANNA MARIE COVERT HANNAN. In the event my Wife preceedes [sic] me in death, I appoint my Brother, KEVIN HANNAN as Executor of this Will.

ITEM THREE: I give and bequeath to my Wife, ANNA MARIE COVERT HANNAN, provided she survives me, all of my possessions....

ITEM FOUR: Should my Wife, ANNA MARIE COVERT HANNAN, and myself die together by accident or otherwise, the estate is to be handled by LYDIA ELIZABETH COVERT FRIEDMAN and KEVIN HANNAN. All real and personal property, except jewelry belonging to my Wife and myself, be liquidated and proceeds there of [sic] be divided equally between my surviving immediate family members and those surving [sic] immediate family members of my Wife: JEROME B. HANNAN, KEVIN HANNAN, MICHAEL HANNAN, KATHLEEN HANNAN and DANIEL HANNAN, LYDIA ELIZABETH COVERT FRIEDMAN, PATRICIA JO COVERT TOLLEY, BARBARA JANE COVERT, GENIA LOUISE COVERT, and KELLEY ANN FRIEDMAN (said KELLEY is to share her part with her sister KIMBERLY BETH FRIEDMAN).

ITEM FIVE: Jewelry belonging to myself shall be given to my Wife if she survives me. If she has preceeded [sic] me in death, it shall go to my brother DANIEL HANNAN, to do with as he wishes. Jewelry belonging to my Wife, is addressed in her own Will.

Both parties assume that the Decedent drafted the Will himself, without the aid of legal counsel, although no evidence was presented to confirm that conclusion.

Decedent's brother, Jerome B. Hannan ("Hannan") filed the Will with the Register of Wills, and he was appointed personal representative of the estate.⁴ On May 16, 2007, the Orphans' Court for Baltimore City concluded that "[t]he remaining clause [in Item Four] pertaining to distribution provides that certain family members, including [Friedman], are entitled to distribution only if the Decedent died in a common disaster with his wife[.]" Accordingly, the Orphans' Court ordered that the Will not be admitted to probate, effectively leaving Decedent intestate.

Both parties appealed to the Circuit Court, seeking an interpretation of Item Four as a residuary clause and a determination as to whether Zelinski's named family members would inherit under that clause. At trial, Zelinski testified that her named family members were her sisters and two of her nieces. She admitted that Decedent did not know her named family members prior to their marriage, and that those family members did not live with them during the marriage. Decedent's divorce attorney, Susan Huesman-Mitchell, testified that Decedent was a merchant marine, an avocation that required him to live away from his wife on a boat for several weeks at a time.

The Circuit Court agreed with the parties' interpretation of Item Four as a residuary clause, and therefore found that Decedent died testate. The court then considered the Will as a whole and determined that its provisions relating to the immediate family of Decedent's wife could not be fulfilled because of the divorce. The court issued a written order, ordering that "only the immediate family members of the deceased ... receive the proceeds from the estate[,]" and that Friedman "be excluded from receiving any proceeds of the estate." The Court of Special Appeals affirmed in an unreported opinion, and Friedman filed a Petition for Writ of Certiorari to this Court. We granted certiorari to consider the following three questions:

1. Did the trial court err in deciding that the bequests to Friedman were conditioned on Decedent being married to Zelinski at the time of Decedent's death?

2. Did the trial court err in deciding that the bequests to Friedman were class gifts and not individual gifts even though the beneficiaries were individually named in the will?

3. Did the trial court err in deciding that ET Section 4-105(4) acts to revoke a person's testamentary gifts to his former spouse's specifically identified family members when his will was executed during his marriage and unchanged after his divorce?

We hold there was no error, and affirm the Circuit Court.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

Pursuant to Maryland Rule 8-131(c), where, as here, an action has been tried without a jury, the appellate court will review the case on both the law and the evidence. "It will not set aside the judgment of the trial court on the evidence unless clearly erroneous[.]" Md. Rule 8-131(c). "The appellate court must consider evidence produced at the trial in a light most favorable to the prevailing party[.]" Ryan v. Thurston, 276 Md. 390, 392, 347 A.2d 834, 835 (1975). "If there is any competent evidence to support the factual findings below, those findings cannot be held to be clearly erroneous." Solomon v. Solomon, 383 Md. 176, 202, 857 A.2d 1109 1123 (2004) (citation omitted). The trial court's conclusions of law, however, are not entitled to the deference of the clearly erroneous standard. See Clancy v. King, 405 Md. 541, 554, 954 A.2d 1092, 1099 (2008).

DISCUSSION

Neither party argues that the Will is invalid or should not be admitted to probate. Moreover, the parties agree that Item Four of the Will functions both as a simultaneous death clause and a residuary clause in the event that Decedent's wife predeceased him. The dispute is whether the bequest to Friedman in Item Four of the Will survived the divorce of Decedent and Zelinski.

Friedman contends that in Item Four Decedent crafted individual bequests with the intent that those gifts survive any divorce between Decedent and Zelinski. Hannan responds that the bequest to Friedman was contingent upon Decedent being married to Zelinski at the time of his death. Hannan views the bequest as one intended to be a gift to a class, which fails because of the divorce. They also differ on the meaning of ET Section 4-105, with Friedman arguing for a narrow interpretation, and Hannan urging the opposite.

The starting point of our analysis will be ET Section 4-105, which sets forth the methods or circumstances under which a will may be revoked. Subsection (4) thereof includes divorce as a cause of dissolution to this extent:

Divorce or annulment. — By an absolute divorce of a testator and his spouse or the annulment of the marriage, either of which occurs subsequent to the execution of the testator's will; and all provisions in the will relating to the spouse, and only those provisions, shall be revoked unless otherwise provided in the will or decree.

(Emphasis added).⁵ Both parties agree that the statute applies, and that the case turns on the meaning of "relating to the spouse[.]" Although neither party contends that this provision is ambiguous, they divide on its meaning. Hannan argues that the phrase "provisions in the will relating to the spouse" mandates revocation when, in the mind of the testator, the connection between the legatees and the ex-spouse is "substantial and logical" and that there is "no other basis for a connection[.]" Friedman, on the other hand, advances a narrow interpretation, which would apply only to bequests to or for the direct benefit of the spouse.

Maryland has consistently recognized these guiding principles of statutory interpretation:

In statutory interpretation, our primary goal is always to discern the legislative purpose, the ends to be accomplished, or the evils to be remedied by a particular provision, be it statutory, constitutional, or part of the Rules. We begin our...