Mississippi law does not permit a person to disinherit his spouse in a last will and testament, unless the spouse owns a “separate estate” of at least as much as she would inherit if her husband died without a will.  However, in an April 2016 case the Mississippi Court of Appeals found that a surviving spouse may lose this protection by abandoning the marriage.
After a nine-month marriage between Sarah Young Estes (Young) and Joe Howard Estes (Estes), Estes passed away testate.  His will did not provide for his wife to inherit from his estate.  The record reflects that soon into the marriage, Estes experienced health difficulties, including the amputation of one leg and surgery to clear blocked neck arteries.  Shortly thereafter, Young permanently moved back into her own separate home and filed for divorce.  After Estes died, Young contested his will since it contained no provision for her.  Initially, the Lee County Chancery Court granted Young a widow’s allowance and a child’s share of the estate.  However, on appeal, the Court of Appeals reversed and denied the widow’s allowance and remanded the child’s-share inheritance back to the trial court for further analysis as to whether Young had abandoned the marriage.[1]  On remand, the chancery court determined that Young had not abandoned the marriage as a matter of law and again granted her a child’s share of the inheritance.  Estes’s family appealed, and the appeals court finally determined that Young had indeed abandoned the marriage and denied her an inheritance.
FACTS
Young and Estes married on August 3, 2006, after dating for approximately six months.  Young entered the marriage with four natural children and three minor grandchildren, whom she had adopted.  Estes had several grown children.  After the marriage, Young’s grandchildren continued to live in the home Young had lived in prior to the marriage and which she continued to maintain after the marriage.
Young worked as a caregiver to the sick and elderly.  Additionally, Young maintained her separate home where her grandchildren resided.  Hence, she divided her time between her work, her household where her grandchildren lived, and Estes’s home.  As noted by the chancellor, Estes and Young’s “living arrangement was somewhat non-traditional.”
Three days after Young and Estes married, Estes entered the hospital due to a foot injury that would not heal and, two months later in October 2006, for surgery to unblock arteries in his neck.  Estes’s brother, Tommy, as well as Tommy’s wife, son, and daughter-in-law, provided primary care of Estes following his health complications.  Young’s schedule between work and caring for her grandchildren prevented her from providing consistent care for Estes in his home.  Estes’s family also testified that Young’s visits to Estes decreased substantially after he became sick and that she rarely came to see Estes except to drop off food on occasion.  There is also testimony from numerous witnesses reflecting that after Estes’s leg was amputated, Young asked Estes’s family to determine how they were going to care for him because she would not and did not have the time to care for “a cripple.”  One of Estes’s sons, Jeff, further testified that by November 2006, Young had stopped going to Estes’s house altogether.
On January 30, 2007, Young initiated involuntary-commitment proceedings against Estes.  A psychiatric evaluation found him to be competent with no indication of any psychiatric illness and no danger to himself or anyone else.  As such, Estes was released from psychiatric care.
Immediately thereafter, on February 2, 2007, he sought a restraining order against Young.  Approximately one month later, on March 7, 2007, Young filed for divorce seeking half of all of Estes’s assets, including the value of his land and his bank accounts.  A few weeks later, Estes counterclaimed for divorce. In May 2007, Estes received notice of the final divorce hearing.  The day after he received the notice, he shot and killed himself.
Estes’s will did not allow for Young to inherit anything from his estate.  Young contested the will.  The trial court granted her a $12, 000 widow’s allowance as well as a one-fifth child’s share of the estate in the amount of $68, 927.63.  At the time, her inheritance totaled $80, 927.63.
The Court of Appeals ascertained that Mississippi law provides that a widow is not entitled to a child’s share if there is “a clear desertion and abandonment” of the marriage.  The Court found that, to prove desertion or abandonment in cases such as this, a clear indication that one party is no longer committed to a marriage is necessary.  While we recognize that separation alone is not proof enough that a marriage has been abandoned, Mississippi courts have recognized qualifying indicators to include filing for divorce, filing for remarriage, and evidence of bigamy.  A summary of the undisputed chronological series of pertinent events during the parties’ nine-month marriage consists of the following: (1) Estes becomes ill; (2) Young slowly reduces the amount of time spent with Estes; (3) Young attempts to involuntarily commit Estes; (4) Estes seeks a restraining order against Young upon his release from the commitment proceedings; (5) Young files for divorce and restraining orders; (6) Estes counterfiles for divorce; and, (7) Estes takes his own life after receipt of notice for a final hearing on the divorce proceedings. Regardless of any other factors present in this case, the most glaring evidence of Young’s abandonment of the marriage was her petition for divorce.
Notes:
[1] In re Estate of Estes, 111 So.3d 1223, 1224-25 (¶¶1-2) (Miss. Ct. App. 2012).
Greg Estes and Jeff Estes, Co-Executors of the Estate of Joe Howard Estes, Deceased v. Sarah Young Estes, Nos. 2014-CA-01533-COA, 2011-CA-01451-COA, April 19, 2016.
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