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Estate of Haagenson11/25/1997
Submitted on Briefs November 6, 1997.
Sara and Benjamin Haagenson filed a petition in the District Court for the Fourth Judicial District in Missoula County in which they sought removal of Darla Zenker-Haagenson as personal representative, and for supervised administration of the Estate of David B. Haagenson. Following a hearing, the petition was denied. Sara and Benjamin appeal. We affirm the order of the District Court.
The issue on appeal is whether the District Court abused its discretion when it denied the appellants' petition.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
David B. Haagenson and Kathy Finneman married in 1974. They had two children, Sara and Benjamin, who are now 18 and 17 years old, respectively. David and Kathy divorced in August 1988. Afterward, they shared joint custody and support of the children.
In November 1988, David married Darla Zenker. In April 1991, David suffered a heart attack and stroke from which he was permanently disabled. He lost much of his ability to speak, write, and read, as well as many other motor functions. Nonetheless, David maintained his ability to drive and remained intellectually competent. Shortly after he became disabled, he and Darla stopped living together. During the following years, both David and Darla expressed their desire to divorce , and Darla filed a petition for dissolution of marriage with the District Court in April 1996, two weeks before David's death. However, due to David's hospitalization, she did not inform David of the petition and ultimately withdrew it. At the time of David's death on April 30, 1996, they were still married.
After David's disability, he and Darla brought a malpractice action against the doctors who had been responsible for his treatment following his heart attack and stroke. The suit was eventually settled for approximately $900,000; Darla received approximately $200,000; and David received approximately $700,000. The parties to the settlement were bound by a confidentiality agreement not to disclose specific details of the settlement, although the terms of the agreement permitted disclosure to immediate family members.
After David received the settlement funds, he established a conservatorship at First Trust Company of Montana to protect and manage most of his financial affairs. David's parents and Kathy were under the impression from David that a trust of some type had also been established to provide for the children, although none had actually been created. Despite the requests of Darla, Sara and Benjamin, and other family members, David did not have a will prepared or do any other estate planning prior to his death at age forty-two in April 1996.
On June 5, 1996, Darla applied to the District Court for appointment as personal representative of David's estate, and she was appointed. Darla continued to use First Trust Company of Montana to administer the estate. She gave public notice to potential creditors of the estate and paid all creditor claims, except four claims made by the appellants in November 1996. She also arranged for an auction of items from the estate and sold David's new truck; all proceeds from the sales and from other assets of the estate were deposited with First Trust Company of Montana.
In January 1997, the appellants filed a petition for removal of Darla as personal representative and for supervised administration of the estate. After a hearing on March 28, 1997, the District Court denied the petition.
DISCUSSION
Did the District Court abuse its discretion when it denied the appellants' petition?
We review a district court's dec
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