IN RE ESTATE OF MABEL L. SMITH, DECEASED. RUTH RANFRANZ, APPELLANT/CROSS-APPELLEE,
v.
DOROTHY JUNE HANN, APPELLEE/CROSS-APPELLANT
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The court held that a trial court cannot rule on the construction of a will or related matters until the will has been admitted to probate.
Two daughters presented conflicting wills for probate. One daughter sought a partial summary judgment regarding survivorship accounts, which the trial…
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PER CURIAM.
This appeal arises out of a will contest in which the trial court entered a partial summary judgment addressing whether certain accounts passed by survivorship or by the terms of a 1993 will. We reverse because the will that the trial court construed has not been admitted to probate.
Decedent’s daughter, Dorothy June Hann, filed a petition for administration seeking to have admitted to probate a will of the decedent dated February 15, 1990. Decedent’s other daughter, Ruth Ranfranz, filed a response and counterpetition denying that the February 15, 1990, will was the decedent’s last will and offering for probate a subsequent will dated February 12, 1993. Hann then filed a motion for partial summary judgment seeking a determination that certain accounts passed by survivorship rather than pursuant to the 1993 will. Although it appears the trial court’s ruling may be correct, we hold that the trial court entered the partial summary judgment prematurely.
Section 733.213, Florida Statutes (1997), provides that “[n]o pleading seeking construction, of a will may be maintained until the will has first been probated.” It is undisputed that neither will has yet been admitted to probate. Therefore, we reverse the trial court’s order granting the motion for partial summary judgment and remand for further proceedings.
Reversed and remanded for further proceedings.
PARKER, C.J., and FULMER and GREEN, JJ., concur.
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First Union Nat'l Bank OF Fla., N.A. v. Est. OF Byron B. Mizell, 807 So. 2d 78 (Fla. 5th DCA 2001)…ion in the 1993 will. The 1978 will was before the court as evidence in the contest over the 1993 will, but it has not been offered for probate. The trial court was correct to cite section 733.213, Florida Statutes (1999) and In re Estate of Smith, 716 So. 2d 335 (Fla. 2d DCA 1998) for the proposition that the court cannot determine the validity and efficacy of the 1978 will until this issue is, in some manner, placed directly before the court and all interested parties have been given an opportunity to be h…