Gray v. Gray case brief

Gray v. Gray case brief summary
947 So.2d 1045 (2006)

CASE SYNOPSIS

The executor of an estate appealed a judgment by the Jefferson Probate Court (Alabama), which found that a decedent's son was entitled to receive a share of the decedent's estate under the pretermitted child statute, Ala. Code § 43-8-91.

CASE FACTS
The son was born after the decedent executed the will in question, which devised all of his estate to his wife and did not include his two children from a previous marriage. The decedent did not change his will after he and his wife were divorced. The probate court found that the son was entitled to a distribution from the estate under the pretermitted child statute, Ala. Code § 43-8-91, equal in value to the share he would have received had the decedent died intestate.

DISCUSSION

• The state supreme court found that one of the exceptions in the pretermitted child statute, Ala. Code § 43-8-91(a)(2), was that an omitted child was not entitled to a share of the estate if, when the will was executed, the testator had one or more children and devised substantially all of his estate to the other parent of the omitted child. 
• The state supreme court found that in light of the fact that when the decedent executed his will, he had two other children, and his will devised all of his estate to the son's mother, the exception underAla. Code § 43-8-91(a)(2) applied, and the son could not receive a share of the estate. 
• Thus, the probate court's judgment was incorrect.

CONCLUSION
The judgment was reversed and remanded to the probate court for further proceedings.

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