In Re Estate of Feldman

Citations

• 2019 CO 62
• 443 P.3d 66

Syllabus

Feldman and the law firm Haddon, Morgan & Foreman petitioned for relief pursuant to C.A.R. 21 from a probate court order requiring the law firm to provide information to the special administrator concerning its representation of Feldman in a criminal prosecution for the murder of his wife, and to deposit funds held in its client trust account into the court registry. In response to the special administrator's assertion that Colorado's \slayer statute\ applies to the funds at issue as proceeds of the decedent's life insurance policy, the probate court determined that if Feldman were later found, in the manner prescribed by the statute, to be the decedent's killer, he would be ineligible to receive those proceeds. Against that eventuality, the probate court found that compelling the return of the unearned funds in the firm's client trust account would be the only way to protect the children's interests, and the court's equitable powers permitted it to do so. The Supreme Court issued a rule to show cause and concluded that the probate court abused its discretion by issuing its order without weighing the considerations inherent in preliminarily enjoining the law firm from expending further funds in the representation of Feldman. In addition, however, because the slayer statute expressly protects third parties who receive a payment in satisfaction of a legally enforceable obligation from being forced to return that payment or from liability for the amount of the payment, the Court determined that no finding of a reasonable likelihood of success in attempting to force the return of the insurance proceeds would have been possible. Given this resolution, the Court further concluded that the disclosures ordered by the probate court would not serve their intended purpose. The Court therefore made the rule to show cause absolute.