IN RE THE ESTATE OF JANE MOYE GUTHRIE, DECEASED; J. MERRITT GUTHRIE & WAYNE M. GUTHRIE, HEIRS, APPELLANTS,
v.
JAMES M. GUTHRIE, PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF JANE MOYE GUTHRIE, DECEASED, APPELLEE

Fla. 1st DCA | 1985-11-13
No. BG-483
SHIVERS and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.
478 So. 2d 465 Florida District Court of Appeal, First District (1985)

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Synopsis

Heirs of a deceased estate appealed a probate court's dismissal of their objection to the personal representative's petition for discharge. The court erred in applying a new procedural rule retroactively to deem their objection abandoned where the original petition failed to include the required statutory notice about the abandonment consequence.


Holding

The court reversed and remanded, holding that the abandonment rule could not be applied because the petition for discharge was filed before the rule's effective date and did not contain the required statutory notice. The two related rules are in pari materia and must be read together; the abandonment provision cannot be enforced absent the prior notice requirement.


Headnotes

[1] A rule of procedure may not be applied retroactively to divest a party of a right that vested prior to the rule's effective date.

[2] A petition for discharge that does not contain a statement advising of the consequences of failing to notice an objection for hearing within 90 days cannot be used to dee…

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Key Quotes

“If the objections are not noticed for hearing within 90 days of filing of the objections, the objections shall be deemed abandoned and the personal representative may make distribution as set forth in the plan of distribution.”

The probate rule at issue that establishes the abandonment consequence relied upon by the lower court.

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Facts & Procedural History

The personal representative filed a petition for discharge on December 5, 1984, claiming full administration of estate assets. Heirs filed a written o…

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Opinion of the Court
WENTWORTH, Judge.

WENTWORTH, Judge.

Appellants seek review of a probate order by which their formal objection to the personal representative’s petition for discharge was dismissed with prejudice. We find that the court erred in dismissing appellants’ objection, and we reverse the order appealed.

The deceased’s personal representative filed a petition for discharge dated December 5, 1984, asserting that the estate had been administered to the full extent of its assets. Appellants are heirs of the' deceased and filed a December 20, 1984 written objection to the petition for discharge, challenging the personal representative’s accounting, contesting certain estate distributions, and asserting that additional estate assets remain to be distributed. Appellants thereafter made a request for admissions in May 1985. The personal representative declined to substantively respond to this request, arguing that appellants’ objection should be deemed abandoned pursuant to Florida Rule of Probate and Guardianship Procedure 5.401(d), which provides that:

If the objections are not noticed for hearing within 90 days of filing of the objections, the objections shall be deemed abandoned and the personal representative may make distribution as set forth in the plan of distribution.

A hearing was held and appellants argued that Rule 5.401(d) should not be applied since it did not become effective until January 1, 1985, after appellants’ objection had already been filed. The court rejected this argument, construing the rule as applicable to all pending cases on January 1, 1985. Finding that more than 90 days had passed since the effective date of the rule without appellants’ objection being noticed for hearing, the court entered an order by which the objection was deemed abandoned and was dismissed with prejudice. We find dismissal to be improper for reasons which do not require resolution of appellants’ argument as to effective date.

As the court below recognized, Rule 5.401(d) establishes that objections shall be deemed abandoned if not timely noticed for hearing. At the same time Rule 5.401 was adopted, Rule 5.400(b)(2)(F) was amended,1 also effective January 1, 1985, so as to require that the petition for discharge contain a statement advising that if an objection is filed “within 90 days after filing of the objection, a notice of hearing thereon must be served or the objection is aban-doned_” In the present case the petition for discharge was filed prior to the effective date of the amendment and did not contain the required statement. The cited rules being pari materia, we con- elude that in the circumstances of this case Rule 5.401(d) may not be applied so as to effect the abandonment of appellants’ objection to the petition for discharge. The court therefore erred in dismissing appellants’ objection.

The order appealed is reversed and the cause remanded.

SHIVERS and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur. . See The Florida Bar re Amendment to Rules— Probate and Guardianship, 458 So. 2d 1079 (Fla. 1984).

Other
WENTWORTH, Judge.

WENTWORTH, Judge.

By motion for rehearing appellee seeks further review as to the jurisdictional basis for this court’s decision. Our jurisdiction was exercised pursuant to Florida Rule of Appellate Procedure 9.110. See Fla.R.P. & G.P. 5.100; cf., Baldwin v. Lewis, 397 So. 2d 985 (Fla. 3d DCA 1981). Accordingly, rehearing is hereby denied.

SHIVERS and WIGGINTON, JJ., concur.


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