The Estate of Brent v. The Estate of Brent

• Docket Number: 2023-CA-00423-SCT
• Decision Date: 05 June 2025
• Citation: The Estate of Brent v. The Estate of Brent, 2023-CA-00423-SCT (Miss. Jun 05, 2025)
• Parties: IN RE THE ESTATE OF EDWIN LEA BRENT, DECEASED: DR. SUSANNAH BRENT MAYS, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF EDWIN LEA BRENT v. THE ESTATE OF ANN BRENT
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

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IN RE THE ESTATE OF EDWIN LEA BRENT, DECEASED: DR. SUSANNAH BRENT MAYS, SPECIAL ADMINISTRATOR OF THE ESTATE OF EDWIN LEA BRENT v. THE ESTATE OF ANN BRENT

No. 2023-CA-00423-SCT

Supreme Court of Mississippi

June 5, 2025

DATE OF JUDGMENT: 08/31/2022

WASHINGTON COUNTY CHANCERY COURT, HON. BENNIE LE NARD RICHARD JUDGE.

TRIAL COURT ATTORNEYS: JOEL J. HENDERSONDAVID SCOTT MAYS, NICK CRAWFORD, R. BRITTAIN VIRDEN, EDWARD D. LAMAR, WALTER ALAN DAVIS.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLANT: JOHN S. GRANT, IV.

ATTORNEY FOR APPELLEE: R. BRITTAIN VIRDEN

BEFORE RANDOLPH, C.J., ISHEE AND GRIFFIS, JJ.

ISHEE JUSTICE.

¶1.This estate case involves a probate claim for unpaid alimony.In short, the estates of Ann Brent and Lea Brent disagree over whether Ann's Estate can recover from Lea's Estate permanent periodic alimony Lea failed to pay his ex-wife Ann prior to her death.The Washington County Chancery Court sided with Ann's Estate and awarded it $139,104-the total amount of alimony Lea owed Ann between July 2014 and November 2015, plus 8 percent interest per annum for eight years and two months.The chancellor erred, however, by denying Lea's Estate credit (1) for partial alimony payments totaling $51,000 Lea made to Ann between July 2014 and November 2015 and (2) for a $75,143.28 life-insurance proceeds payment Lea made to Ann's Estate in March 2019.Because the total amount of credit exceeds the total amount owed for the relevant period, thereby leaving no unpaid alimony to award Ann's Estate, we reverse the chancellor's decision and render judgment in favor of Lea's Estate.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶2.Lea and Ann married on April 24, 1953, and divorced on September 21, 1983.According to their property settlement agreement (PSA), incorporated into the divorce decree, Lea agreed to pay Ann $5,600 on the tenth day of each month in permanent periodic alimony.The guaranteed minimum monthly alimony amount was to be paid until Ann remarried or until her death.Ann died on November 27, 2015, having never remarried.According to Lea's tax returns, he began paying Ann less than the required amount in 2002, but no modification action was ever filed.Further, Ann never filed a contempt action against Lea for nonpayment of alimony based on a violation of their PSA.

¶3.The PSA also required Lea to acquire a term life-insurance policy for himself before the entry of the divorce decree.The PSA specified that the policy amount had to be at least $500,000 and required that the funds from the policy be placed into a trust upon Lea's death.The PSA additionally stated that "the income from said trust shall be paid periodically but in no event less than annually to [Ann] during her lifetime and regardless of her re-marriage at the discretion of the trustee."Lea accordingly obtained a policy from Manhattan Life Insurance.

¶4.Lea and Ann had five children together: Collins, Margaret, Jesse, Belinda, and Ruth Ann.Collins became the power of attorney for Ann on July 31, 2014.When Ann passed away, she left her entire estate to her five children in her last will and testament.She also named Collins as executor of her estate.After his divorce from Ann in 1983, Lea remarried and had another child, Susannah, who, along with his five children from Ann, were the beneficiaries of his estate in his last will and testament.Lea named Collins and David Mays, Susannah's husband, as coexecutors of his estate.Lea died on January 10, 2021.

¶5.On July 2, 2021, Collins, as executor of Ann's Estate, filed a Notice of Probate Claim against the Estate of Lea Brent for unpaid alimony that Lea failed to pay Ann prior to her death, in the total amount of $358,700.The deficient alimony payments spanned from 2002 to 2015.After Collins filed the probate claim, he realized a conflict existed because he served as an executor for both estates.Thus, Jesse Brent, Ann's other son, was appointed substitute executor of Ann's Estate in place of Collins, and Collins remained coexecutor of Lea's Estate.On April 14, 2022, David Mays filed an objection to the probate claim as coexecutor of Lea's Estate.Mays also filed discovery requests, including various motions to compel discovery, against Ann's Estate.

¶6.The chancery court held an evidentiary hearing on August 9, 2022.Jesse testified that the family was aware Lea was only making partial alimony payments to Ann for years prior to her death.Jesse also testified that the divorce decree provided Ann $5,600 a month but that Lea had started paying her $3,000 a month starting in 2004.When asked why his mother never took legal action for the deficient payments, Jesse stated that he did not know, but he thought she wanted to avoid the "contention" that the divorce wrought.

¶7.Lea's tax returns from 2001 to 2015 were admitted into evidence during Jesse's testimony.The tax returns showed Lea applied for tax deductions in the amount of $67,200 in 2001, which was the annual total for the minimum monthly payments of $5,600.In 2002, Lea's tax returns show he reduced the alimony and continued lowering the total paid through 2005, 2006, and 2007.In 2006 and 2007, Lea reportedly paid $2,000 a month in alimony-less than half the required amount.Beginning in 2008, Lea's tax returns stated he only paid $3,000 per month in alimony and consistently deducted an annual total of $36,000 per year on his tax returns from 2008 to 2015.

¶8.Ann's tax returns from 2008 to 2015 were also admitted into evidence.Most of Ann's tax returns showed alimony income of $36,000 per year, rather than the court-ordered $67,200.^[1] The amounts received in 2014 and 2015 were further corroborated with Ann's monthly bank statements from Trustmark Bank, which showed she only deposited $3,000 per month into her personal bank account from Lea until her death in November 2015.

¶9.Jesse testified the total arrearage owed for unpaid alimony exceeded $600,000 spanning an eleven-year period, including interest.Jesse ultimately agreed, however, that Ann's Estate could only recover unpaid alimony from 2014 and 2015 due to the applicable seven-year statute of limitations.SeeMiss. Code Ann. § 15-1-43(Rev. 2019)(stating that "[a]ll actions founded on any judgment or decree rendered by any court of record in this state" can be "brought within seven (7) years next after the rendition of such judgment or decree[.]").Nonetheless, Jesse claimed that Lea's Estate should not receive any credits for payments made during the relevant time period between July 2014 and November 2015 because the arrearage was so large, and Lea never caught up on the payments.Jesse therefore requested that court order Lea's Estate to pay Ann's Estate $159,128, which accounted for the full amount of alimony required but not received between July 2014 and November 2015($95,200), plus 8 percent interest compounded annually.^[2]

¶10.On cross-examination, Jesse testified that Ann's Estate received approximately $75,000 directly from Manhattan Life Insurance in 2019.Jesse also testified he had no knowledge of any agreement that Lea or Ann may have had regarding the reduced payments since 2004.

¶11.Ann's Estate called Collins as its second witness.When questioned by the court, Collins agreed that the PSA required an insurance policy to cover nonpayment of alimony in the event Lea died before Ann, which did not occur.Notably, the attorney for Ann's Estate argued that the PSA did not contain a provision stating that any proceeds from the policy were to be used to pay alimony or to serve as a credit toward alimony.Collins testified that his father wanted to cease paying the premium that was on the policy, so he"had the trustees cash that policy out."Collins explained that his father gave him the check from Manhattan Life Insurance in the amount of $75,143.28 (the cash value of the policy).As executor of Ann's Estate, Collins deposited the check into Ann's Estate's bank account on March 14, 2019.Collins testified that he understood the money to be a gift and that his father made no mention of the money being used as an alimony payment.

¶12.Following the hearing, the court entered an Order to Establish Probate Claim finding the probate claim valid.The court based its ruling primarily on the tax returns of Lea and Ann, which showed delinquent alimony payments.The court found, however, that a majority of past-due payments in the 2021 probate claim were barred by the seven-year statute of limitations.Therefore, the court held the only valid claims for past-due alimony were between July 2014 and November 2015.The court denied Lea's request for offset or credit for payments made between July 2014 and November 2015 based on the "significant arrearage" outside of the statute of limitations.Thus, the court determined that the most equitable calculation for the probate claim was $139,104, which accounted for the alimony payments owed between July 2014 and November 2015($95,200) and a simple-interest rate of 8 percent per annum.The court further found that Lea's Estate failed to submit sufficient proof to justify an offset or credit based on Lea's payment to Ann's Estate with the money he received after surrendering his life insurance policy.

¶13.Lea's Estate appealed.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶14.When reviewing appeals from chancery court decisions"we apply a limited standard of review in that the factual findings of the chancery court, if supported by substantial evidence, will not be disturbed unless the chancery court abused its discretion, applied an erroneous legal standard, or its findings are manifestly wrong or clearly erroneous."Flowers v. Boolos(In re Est. of Smith), 204 So.3d 291, 305(Miss.2016)(citingArrington v. Ready(In re Est. of Baumgardner), 82 So.3d...