Mike Northrup Wins Three Appeals in Will Contest
Jul 15, 2007 ⋅ Category: GAL
In a highly-publicized will contest involving a fading mansion on Dallas' historic Swiss Avenue, Mike Northrup and Mark Cronenwett prevailed in three separate appeals. The first appeal concerned a summary-judgment order that threw out a deathbed will because, contrary to Texas law, only one of the two witnesses had signed the will in the presence of the testatrix, an elderly woman who had been victimized by the deathbed-will's beneficiaries and their attorney. The Court of Appeals found that this same lawyer waived every one of his arguments on appeal. In the second appeal, the Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's finding that the proponent of the deathbed will lacked standing to contest an earlier will signed by the testatrix because the proponent was not an heir, devisee, spouse, or creditor of the estate and she did not have a claim against the estate. In the last appeal, the Court of Appeals ruled that an appeal by the deathbed-will's beneficiaries of an order allowing the sale of the Swiss Avenue mansion was interlocutory because Texas law requires that a report of sale be signed by the trial court to render such a ruling a final appealable judgment. The beneficiaries had appealed from a preliminary ruling allowing the property to be posted for sale and, therefore, the Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal.