In re Estate of Peterson

• Decision Date: 18 August 2000
• Docket Number: No. 24091-2-II.,24091-2-II.
• Court: Washington Court of Appeals
• Parties: In re the ESTATE OF Clarence Lester PETERSON, Deceased. Betty P. Ianicelli and Lester Roy Peterson, Appellants, v. Vickie Peterson, Diane Peterson, Linda Peterson, William Joseph Peterson, Personal Representative, Terrina Peterson, Gina Knight, Victoria Steve (Peterson), Eun Young Lee, Respondents.

9 P.3d 845

102 Wash. App. 456

102 Wn. App. 456

In re the ESTATE OF Clarence Lester PETERSON, Deceased.

Betty P. Ianicelli and Lester Roy Peterson, Appellants, v. Vickie Peterson, Diane Peterson, Linda Peterson, William Joseph Peterson, Personal Representative, Terrina Peterson, Gina Knight, Victoria Steve (Peterson), Eun Young Lee, Respondents.

No. 24091-2-II.

Court of Appeals of Washington, Division 2.

August 18, 2000.

Publication Ordered September 15, 2000.

Stephen Jesse Oelrich, Sverre O. Staurset, Law Offices of Sverre O. Staurset, Tacoma, for Appellants.

Dale B. Sawyer, Foshaug, McGoran, Sawyer, Arnoff, Federal Way, Jack W. Hanemann, Hanemann, Bateman, Jones & Bardwil, Olympia, for Respondents.

HUNT, J.

Betty Ianicelli and Lester Peterson appeal the trial court's denial of their motion for reconsideration, in which they sought application of the common law discovery rule to extend the four-month period for contesting a will under RCW 11.24.010. We affirm.

FACTS

Clarence L. Peterson has six children.¹ After his second wife died, Peterson, then in his seventies, married Victoria Steve, then in her mid-twenties, on June 5, 1995. Thereafter, Peterson changed his will three times and added two codicils. Each change reduced his children's, grandchildren's, and other heirs' shares of his estate, while increasing Victoria Steve Peterson's share. One codicil provided that if any beneficiary contested his will, that person's inheritance would be reduced to $10. Except for his sons, William Joseph Peterson and Lester Roy Peterson, Peterson's other adult children lived in Georgia.

Clarence Peterson died on October 11, 1997. One month later, on November 13, 1997, the court appointed his son William Joseph Peterson as his personal representative, and Peterson's will was admitted to probate. The next day, November 14, 1997, the personal representative published a notice to creditors to file all claims against the estate under RCW 11.40.020. In response to this notice, Betty Ianicelli, Peterson's daughter, filed a creditor's claim against the estate.

On March 11, 1998, Betty Ianicelli and Lester Peterson (the Contestants), filed a Claim of Heirs to notify the estate of their suspicions of fraudulent conduct by Victoria Steve Peterson in marrying their father and depriving him of his money and property. They alleged that she was a member of the notorious Steve gypsy family of Tacoma, many of whom were "currently awaiting trial for FRAUD in Pierce County." To support their allegations, they attached newspaper articles that detailed the involvement of the Steve family in welfare and insurance scams—none of which mentioned Victoria Steve Peterson's involvement.

The Contestants alleged that Victoria Steve Peterson had lied to Peterson about family illnesses and corresponding medical expenses to obtain cash and vehicles that were later sold and converted to cash. The Contestants suspected that Victoria Steve Peterson's marriage to their father was a sham "for the purpose of continuing and facilitating the fraud against Mr. Peterson." They alleged that she never established a marital residence, nor ever spent the night with their father.² They asked that:

the marriage of Victoria Steve and Mr. Clarence L. Peterson be declared null and void and that an accounting be made of all monies received in cash or kind by Victoria Steve, her relatives, friends and/or associates. That any and all bequests in Mr. Peterson's WILL, purporting to give to Victoria Steve "Peterson" as "my wife" are null and void and that the WILL be declared null and void.

Approximately one month later, on April 27, 1998, the personal representative rejected his siblings' claims. He rejected the Claim of Heirs because it was not a Creditor's Claim and because

no facts in the Claim of Heirs regarding the validity of the Petersons' marriage or other fraudulent acts are declared under oath and the attachments only cite allegations regarding the Steve family in general, not specifically against Victoria Steve Peterson.

He also rejected Ianicelli's Creditor's Claim. The personal representative notified the parties that they must sue him within 30 days of the rejection to preserve their claim. RCW 11.40.100(1). The Contestants failed to do so.

Approximately one month after the statutory period for filing a will contest had expired, a television news story aired regarding the Peterson estate. In response to the news story, a self-proclaimed gypsy nation representative, J. James Marks, telephoned the Contestants' counsel. According to the Contestants, Marks corroborated their allegations of fraud in their Creditor's Claim and Claim of Heirs.

On May 22, 1998, more than two months after the statutory four-month period for will contests had expired,³ the Contestants filed a Petition for Revocation of Probate of Peterson's will and codicil (Petition) based on fraud. The Petition contained the same allegations of fraud as in the Claim of Heirs: that the marriage was a sham to allow Victoria Steve Peterson and her family to continue to "engage[] in a conspiracy to defraud decedent of his money, property and estate." The Contestants also detailed the dates and changes Clarence Peterson had made to his will and the accompanying codicils. The Contestants alleged that: (1) Clarence Peterson was subjected to over-reaching, duress, fraud, and undue influence as a result of misrepresentations and frauds perpetrated by Victoria Steve Peterson and other members of her family; and (2) as a result, Victoria Steve Peterson procured Clarence Peterson's signature on the will that "granted her significant bequests at the expense of decedent's natural bounty. The wills signed by decedent were not the results of decedent's free will."

On June 8, 1998, the Contestants took the deposition of J. James Marks, Jr.⁴ Victoria Steve Peterson was once married to his son, and her ex-father-in-law was willing to share what he knew of her background. He also provided information about gypsy females who sought "gustimano" or "sugar daddies" "that gypsy girls prey on to receive supplemental income."⁵ Marks related Victoria Steve Peterson's interactions with Clarence Peterson and how she bragged she had hooked "a whale."⁶

Victoria Steve Peterson moved to dismiss under CR 12(b)(1), because the Contestants' Petition was untimely. RCW 11.24.010. The trial court granted her motion to dismiss with prejudice.

The Contestants filed a motion for reconsideration, arguing for the first time that the trial court should extend the "discovery rule" to will contests in probate proceedings. The trial court declined to do so and denied the motion.

The Contestants appealed. Their primary argument for applying the discovery rule to this will contest is that they could not have learned of the facts underlying the fraud until after the period to file a will contest had expired.

ANALYSIS

We review a trial court's denial of a motion for reconsideration for abuse of discretion. Meridian Minerals Co. v. King County, 61 Wash.App. 195, 203-04, 810 P.2d 31, rev. denied, 117 Wash.2d 1017, 818 P.2d 1099 (1991). Abuse of discretion occurs when the trial court's decision rests on untenable grounds or untenable reasons. State ex rel. Carroll v. Junker, 79 Wash.2d 12, 26, 482 P.2d 775 (1971); Meridian Minerals, 61 Wash.App. at 204, 810 P.2d 31. Granting a motion to dismiss under CR 12(b)(1)⁷ is a question of law, which we review de novo, drawing all inferences in favor of the plaintiff. Vestron Inc. v. Home Box Office Inc., 839 F.2d 1380, 1381 (9th Cir.1988); Kearney v. Kearney, 95 Wash.App. 405, 411 974 P.2d 872 (1999) (citing Cutler v. Phillips Petroleum Co., 124 Wash.2d 749, 755, 881 P.2d 216 (1994)).

The Contestants ask us to apply the common law discovery rule to toll RCW 11.24.010's four-month period for filing will contests for cases of fraud "when contestants cannot and do not learn of the facts underlying the fraud until after the four-month limitations period" has expired. They argue that we can extend the discovery rule without a specific statutory authorization and that we have the equitable authority to "look beyond the statutory framework in matters involving `fraud of the grossest kind.'" We agree with Victoria Steve Peterson that applying the discovery rule to excuse the Contestants' failure to file a timely will contest would be contrary to the Legislature's historical objective, which has been to shorten the filing period for will contests.

A. THE DISCOVERY RULE

The "discovery rule" was adopted by the Washington Supreme Court in Ruth v. Dight, 75 Wash.2d 660, 453 P.2d 631 (1969), a medical malpractice case.⁸ The Court held that statute of limitations begins to run in medical malpractice cases when "the patient discovers or, in the exercise of reasonable care for his own health and welfare, should have discovered the presence of the foreign substance or article in his body." Ruth, 75 Wash.2d at 667-68, 453 P.2d 631. Since Ruth, Washington courts have refined the discovery doctrine, but only in tort cases. There is neither precedent nor cause for us to extend the rule here.

Moreover, even were we to consider it, this case would not present facts justifying extension of the discovery rule. The contestants were well aware of the basis of their fraud claims at the time they filed their Claim of Heirs,⁹ within the four-month statutory period. In that Claim, they alleged that the Peterson marriage was a sham, that Victoria Steve Peterson acted fraudulently, and that the marriage should be declared null and void. The Contestants needed only to file their petition within the statutory time frame; having failed to do so, they have lost their right to contest the will.

The Washington Supreme Court has declined to apply the discovery rule to a probate statute that was silent regarding the discovery rule. Ruth, 75 Wash.2d at 660, 453 P.2d 631. The court did not extend the discovery rule to the nonclaim ...