My mother died three weeks ago in Indiana. I am one of three
children.
For a number of years my mom has given each of her kids and
their
spouses a $1,000 Christmas check each year. I never cashed my
checks
for Dec 2001, Dec 2002 and Dec 2003 (I was waiting for a "great
investment opportunity" to come along. Also, I would have cashed
them
sooner since my mother had been very sick for a number of months
but I
couldn't find them in my messy office and I didn't think she
would
die.
Well, I found the three checks yesterday while looking for
something
else and called my mother's estate executor.
He said that the checks would normally be valid even though one
was
written three years ago. But because the checks represented a
gift and
were not cashed before my mother died, that the checks were now
void.
Is this really true in Indiana?
Do I have any legal recourse?
More information:
My mom had three trusts that will be split evenly among her
three
children. She also had a checking account that was not part of
the
trust. It had a balance of about $9,000 at the time of her
death. My
mom added my sister to the account a few years ago to pay bills
when
she was in the hospital (My sister lives in the same town as my
mother
and my brother and I live in other states.)
Well, it turns out that the account was a joint account with my
sister
with right of survivorship rather than my sister just being
added as a
check signer (I don't believe that this was my mother's intent
for my
sister to get the full balance of the account versus being part
of her
estate but it's okay with me since my sister was always their to
help
my mom.)
But if it's true that the checks are no longer valid, I do feel
that
the moral and correct thing to do is for my sister to write me a
check
for $3000 for two reasons: One, if I had cashed the checks 10
days ago
the balance in the account going to my sister would have been
$6,000
rather than $9,000 and two, that's what my mom would want her to
do.
Also, since the checking account is a joint account and my
sister is
still alive, are not the checks still good even though they
represent
gifts because one of the joint owners is still alive?
I agree with David Martel except for one thing. I wouldn't write
to the executor yet. I would wait until the bank returns the
checks as NSF or because the account is closed or frozen. Then
you have a clear claim.
The checks may have been gifts, but that doesn't matter because
the gifts were delivered. A promise of a gift may be rescinded,
but a delivered gift may not be. The gifts were negotiable
instruments, not promises. Your claim against the estate is
perfect. The executor won't have discretion to dissallow your
claim. It doesn't matter what happened to the money in the
account. The claim is against the estate, not against your
sister, and not against any particular asset.
McGvyer
