Even lawyers make mistakes when it comes areas outside their area of expertise. Branter v. Smith, A-23-464 (August 27, 2024) is a prime example.
Bob Branter was a trial lawyer who lived in California. He apparently grew up in the Midwest. At one time he was romantically involved with Carol Smith, but the romance ended and they remained friends.
Bob owned a house in Ventura, California which was destroyed by a wildfire. Because of that, he allegedly couldn't purchase homeowner's insurance on a house in Nebraska. For the sake of this post, I'll take that as true but what a bizarre rule.
In November 201, Bob paid for and purchased a ...
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Divorce and estate planning
What if you are in the process of a divorce and you were admitted to a hospital? Imagine further that you were unconscious. What if your soon to be ex-spouse was your designated agent for making health care decisions as opposed to your children? That's not a good scenario.
The same scenario could apply to a durable power of attorney you have executed. While it would be contrary to the standard pre-trial order in Nebraska divorce cases, your future ex-spouse would have a "blank check" and full access to your assets.
My point is this. Once a divorce case is filed, it the best practice to revise all of your estate planning documents. ...
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“A windfall that borders on the obscene”
Those are the words of Nebraska Supreme Court judge William Cassel dissenting in the case of Wisner v. Vandelay Investments. The case result was that the estate of a 90 plus widow ended up losing real estate worth over a million dollars due to unpaid real estate taxes of $50,000.
Gladys Wisner owned 480 acres of Lincoln County, Nebraska real estate. In 2009 Gladys moved into a retirement community. In 2010, the real estate taxes became delinquent. In 2011, the county sold a tax certificate for the property. It yields interest at the rate of 14 percent. Because of that high rate, Nebraska has a very active market in these financial ...
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