Maryland Business Litigation Lawyer Blog
In February 2023, Silverman Thompson initiated an action in the Circuit Court for Montgomery County on behalf of its client, a 105-year-old World War II Veteran.
As alleged in the lawsuit, Silverman Thompson’s client had lived in the same home since 1960, which had been owned by his parents. Following his father’s death in 1971 (the second of his parents to pass), Silverman Thompson’s client was appointed personal representative of his father’s estate and, under Maryland’s laws of intestacy, was to deed ownership of the home to himself and his five siblings.
No such deed, however, was ever prepared. In the decades that followed, all five siblings themselves passed away, while Silverman Thompson’s client continued to live in the home and pay all property taxes, insurance, and utilities. However, in August 2022 (six weeks after the death of the last of five siblings), one of Silverman Thompson’s client’s nieces sought to re-open the father’s estate, all in an effort to allow legal title of the home to pass to her and certain of her cousins. Silverman Thompson thus asked the Circuit Court to quiet title alleging, in relevant part, that its client’s five now-deceased siblings all abandoned their equitable interest in the home in the decades following their father’s death.