Parker v. Estate of Bealer
| Decision Date | 21 November 2007 |
| Docket Number | No. 33339.,33339. |
| Citation | 656 S.E.2d 129 |
| Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | Nancy B. PARKER, Trustee of the Hartford E. Bealer Foundation, Plaintiff Below, Appellee v. The ESTATE OF Hartford E. BEALER, by U.S. Trust Company of Florida S.B., as Executor of the Estate of Hartford Bealer and U.S. Trust Company of Florida S.B., As Trustee of the Hartford E. Bealer Amended and Restated Declaration of Trust, Sally B. Kirchiro, Trustee, and Kathleen K. Stone, Defendants Below, Appellants. |
SYLLABUS BY THE COURT
1. "A circuit court's entry of summary judgment is reviewed de novo." Syllabus Point 1, Painter v. Peavy, 192 W.Va. 189, 451 S.E.2d 755 (1994).
2. "Summary judgment is appropriate if, from the totality of the evidence presented, the record could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party, such as where the nonmoving party has failed to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of the case that it has the burden to prove." Syllabus Point 2, Williams v. Precision Coil, Inc., 194 W.Va. 52, 459 S.E.2d 329 (1995).
3. "If the moving party makes a properly supported motion for summary judgment and can show by affirmative evidence that there is no genuine issue of a material fact, the burden of production shifts to the nonmoving party who must either (1) rehabilitate the evidence attacked by the moving party, (2) produce additional evidence showing the existence of a genuine issue for trial, or (3) submit an affidavit explaining why further discovery is necessary as provided in Rule 56(f) of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure." Syllabus Point 3, Williams v. Precision Coil, Inc., 194 W.Va. 52, 459 S.E.2d 329(1995).
Richard G. Gay, Esq., Nathan P. Cochran, Esq., R. Greg Garretson, Esq., Law Office of Richard Gay, Berkeley Springs, WV, V. Alan Riley, Romney, WV, Attorneys for Appellants.
Tammy Mitchell McWilliams, Esq., Joanna L-S. Robinson, Esq., Martinsburg, WV, Attorneys for Appellee.
The appellants, United States Trust Company of Florida, S.B., as personal representative of the Estate of Hartford E. Bealer, deceased, and as Trustee of the Hartford E. Bealer Revocable Trust, as amended, and Kathleen K. Stone, the granddaughter of Mr Bealer, appeal from the June 2, 2006, order of the Circuit Court of Hampshire County, which granted the appellee, Nancy Parker's, motion for summary judgment in an action over Mr. Bealer's 277.42 acre Hampshire County farm (hereinafter, the "farm"). Ms. Parker, the daughter of Mr. Bealer, filed the underlying action as the Trustee of the Hartford E. Bealer Foundation (hereinafter, the "Foundation" or "trust"), wherein the farm was temporarily held. The issue on appeal is whether the Foundation was void ab initio due to a mistake in its formation, which, in turn, would invalidate the initial transfer of the farm by Mr. Bealer to the Foundation.
This Court has before it the petition for appeal, the entire record, and the briefs and argument of counsel. For the reasons set forth below, the final order granting summary judgment for the appellee is reversed, and this case is remanded to the circuit court with directions to enter an order granting summary judgment in favor of the appellants.
On January 9, 2003, at the age of ninety-three, Hartford E. Bealer died leaving an estate worth more than $22 million. Mr. Bealer, who founded Chevy Chase Bank, was survived by two adult daughters, Nancy Parker and Sally Kirchiro, as well as various grandchildren and great grandchildren. His extensive estate is in probate in Florida, and Ms. Parker, the appellee, has instituted litigation in Florida, Maryland, and West Virginia against several of her family members with regard to numerous aspects of Mr. Bealer's estate.
With regard to the Florida litigation, on September 28, 2007, the Circuit Court of the Fifteenth Judicial Circuit in and for Palm Beach County, Florida, denied Ms. Parker's claim of tortious interference with an expectancy she filed against her daughter and other family members. The Florida court specifically found that Mr. Bealer acted of his own free will and free agency and made decisions and choices as he saw fit with regard to the distribution of his estate. Moreover, the circuit court declared that Mr. Bealer's decisions surrounding his estate were not the product of undue influence, that Mr. Bealer was clearly mentally competent, and that his declarations were all valid and enforceable.1
The subject of appeal in West Virginia is a 277.42 acre river-front Hampshire County farm with a 2003 appraised value of more than $1.2 million. In 2000, Mr. Bealer, while living in Florida, attempted to create a tax-exempt charitable Foundation, into which he placed the title to his Hampshire County farm. Based upon information provided by his son-in-law, Jay Parker, who is a tax attorney, Mr. Bealer believed that he would be able to set up the Foundation without having to meet an Internal Revenue Service rule, which requires charitable foundations to distribute annually a minimum of five percent of the market value of the foundation's assets to one or more charitable organizations.2 Soon thereafter, Mr. Bealer's Florida attorneys informed him that Mr. Parker was mistaken with regard to the law and that in order to meet the five-percent obligation he would have to sell part of the farm each year or contribute additional money each year to the Foundation, which was not Mr. Bealer's intent.
After learning that Mr. Parker was incorrect with regard to his interpretation of the applicable tax laws, Mr. Bealer and his attorneys attempted to contact Mr. Parker, who did not return their phone calls or respond to their written correspondence. On November 30, 2000, Mr. Bealer removed Mr. Parker as a co-trustee of the Foundation, and on December 11, 2000, he re-deeded the Hampshire County farm to himself as he feared that Mr. Parker would attempt to sell it. Mr. Bealer thereafter changed his estate documents and left his farm to his granddaughter, Kathleen Stone, who had expressed her interest in preserving the farm.
Upon Mr. Bealer's death, his daughters, Ms. Parker and Ms. Kirchiro, were named the co-trustees of the Foundation. When it was learned that Ms. Parker planned to sue Ms. Kirchiro's daughter, Kathleen Stone, with regard to the Hampshire County farm, Ms. Kirchiro was removed as a trustee of the Foundation, leaving Ms. Parker to act as sole trustee. Ms. Parker, as the appellee, brought the current litigation arguing that the farm was still a part of the Foundation and that her father did not have a legal right to deed it back to himself and subsequently leave it to Ms. Stone.
On June 2, 2006, the Circuit Court of Hampshire County denied the appellants' motion for summary judgment and granted the appellee's motion for summary judgment. The appellants subsequently appealed the circuit court's order.
The appellants contend that the circuit court erred in granting summary judgment to the appellee. In Syllabus Point 1 of Painter v. Peavy, 192 W.Va. 189, 451 S.E.2d 755 (1994), this Court stated that "[a] circuit court's entry of summary judgment is reviewed de novo." Pursuant to Rule 56 of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure, summary judgment is required when the record shows that there is "no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to a judgment as a matter of law." In Syllabus Point 3 of Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Federal Ins. Co. of New York, 148 W.Va. 160, 133 S.E.2d 770 (1963), this Court held: "A motion for summary judgment should be granted only when it is clear that there is no genuine issue of fact to be tried and inquiry concerning the facts is not desirable to clarify the application of the law."
Moreover, "[s]ummary judgment is appropriate if, from the totality of the evidence presented, the record could not lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party, such as where the nonmoving party has failed to make a sufficient showing on an essential element of the case that it has the burden to prove." Syllabus Point 2, Williams v. Precision Coil, Inc., 194 W.Va. 52, 459 S.E.2d 329 (1995). Additionally, "[i]f the moving party makes a properly supported motion for summary judgment and can show by affirmative evidence that there is no genuine issue of a material fact, the burden of production shifts to the nonmoving party who must either (1) rehabilitate the evidence attacked by the moving party, (2) produce additional evidence showing the existence of a genuine issue for trial, or (3) submit an affidavit explaining why further discovery is necessary as provided in Rule 56(f) of the West Virginia Rules of Civil Procedure." Syllabus Point 3, Williams. With these standards in mind, we now proceed to consider the issues presented in this case.
The issue in this appeal is whether the circuit court's granting of Ms. Parker's motion for summary judgment was appropriate, which resulted in Mr. Bealer's 277.42 acre farm remaining in the Foundation and not in Mr. Bealer's estate. The appellants, the estate of Mr. Bealer and Kathleen K. Stone, Mr. Bealer's granddaughter, argue that summary judgment was not proper and maintain that there was no effective Foundation in this case because there was a mistake in its creation making the Foundation void under Florida law.3
The appellants point out that Mr. Bealer relied on the advice of Jay Parker, his son-in-law, to the effect that the Internal Revenue Service five percent minimum yearly distribution rule did not apply to this Foundation at the time he decided to form the Foundation and transfer his farm into it. The appellants explain that upon learning that Mr. Parker, who was an experienced real estate and tax attorney, was wrong and had given him erroneous advice regarding the formation of the Foundation, Mr. Bealer immediately removed...
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...cannot lead a rational trier of fact to find for the nonmoving party, summary judgment must be granted. Parker v. Estate of Bealer, 221 W.Va. 684, 687, 656 S.E.2d 129, 132 (2007) ( citing Williams v. Precision Coil, Inc., 194 W.Va. 52, 459 S.E.2d 329 (1995)). Likewise, the standard of appel......
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