Estate Of Levine

125 Cal. App. 3d 701 (1981)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

H and W were married on January 1, 1974. They had been neighbors for 20 years. Their respective spouses had predeceased them by several years. Both had children from their prior marriages, all of whom were adults at the time. Phillip and Estelle married. In April of 1975, H and W purchased a home taking title as joint tenants. H died on November 26, 1977. His will named as coexecutors his attorney, Samuel Leemon and S. S filed a petition seeking to have the home declared to be community property. Attorney Leemon testified in support of the petition. H came to Leemon and asked him to prepare a will. H wanted his will to reflect his intention with respect to the character of the property: the new home was to be considered community property, but would be held in joint tenancy for convenience only. H wanted to be able to devise his one-half of the house to his children. If W predeceased him, he also wanted to prevent W from devising her one-half of their community property to her children and wanted to avoid a lengthy probate administration, both of which he could accomplish by holding the property in joint tenancy. Leemon advised against holding the new home in joint tenancy but calling it community property. H said that he and W had an agreement that the house was community property. W testified that she never had any discussions as to what would happen to their property if one of them died, and H never told her that he wanted his half to go to his children. S testified that he had four separate conversations with H alone in which H told him that S and his sister, Iris, would inherit half the proceeds upon H's death. The court held the home was in joint tenancy. S appealed.