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Tim Holman and Dan Boose Speak on Litigating Claims Against Decedents’ Estates

January 21, 2015

On January 13, 2015, Timothy J. Holman and Daniel R. Boose gave a presentation to the Orphans’ Court Litigation Committee of the Philadelphia Bar Association’s Probate and Trust Law Section about issues that arise when litigating in the Orphans’ Court a claim against a Decedent’s estate arising out of pre-death services performed by a person who had no contract with the Decedent.  Tim (the most recent past Chair of the Committee), and Dan discussed with the Committee issues related to the proper preparation for and presentation at trial of a claim for quantum meruit (i.e. “what one has earned”).  Tim and Dan addressed the current law governing claims against estates, Dead Man’s Rule issues, and other legal hurdles to anticipate and overcome in such cases.  During their presentation, Tim and Dan gave the Committee advice from the trenches based on their recent Philadelphia Orphans’ Court victory on behalf of their client, Dorothy Martin in the matter of Estate of Rose Rubenstein(see Tim Holman’s December 18, 2014, blog post entitled “Pennsylvania’s Dead Man’s Rule – the Big Bad Wolf?  Not Really” Click here for a more detailed discussion of those issues).