My inheritance?

Question

When i was 11, my grandma passed away and she left my sisterand i over $75,000 worth of jewlere (tiffany and all that really nice stuff) but my dad felt iw asnt respomsible to have it so he kept it at his girlfriends house (my parents are divorced) But it was stolen and now we dont have any of it.

Can I sue? If so, for how much? What kind of attorney should I get? Im 15, going on 16...

Answer 1

Yes, you can legally question your Dad and he will have to pay. He made a big big mistake taking the jewellry to his girlfriend's house.

If it weren't for the theft story I'd say there is probably nothing wrong. Maybe there isn't anything wrong and he filed a police report. Why it's important that he did so, read on. I hope he did file.

Talk to Mom and tell her you want to make her the legal trustee of your inheritence. Once you sign a paper written by a lawyer to that effect one several things will happen.

If your Dad doesn't turn over the jewellry tor Mom, Mom can file a legal complaint against your Dad or sue for negligence and possible civil action regarding trusteeship laws that I won't go into detail here.

But in short the law boils down too your Mom can sue your Dad for negligence on not taking the proper safeguards to protect property that was not his. And there may also criminal charges that can happen, but they won't be filed by you or your Mom, they will be filed by the insurance company.

If I were Dad I would come up with the jewellry pretty quick.

But go see your Mom and ask her that you want her to be the be the legal trustee of your inheritence and once the papers are signed, your Dad will 1) produce the jewellry, 2) produce $75,000 from the insurance claim or 3) I'm sure your Mom would only be to happy to file the insurance claim based on the theft. The insurance company will have to pay but then they would then likely file criminal theft charges against your Dad and once the insurance company files criminal charges, they can sue your Dad to recover their money because of the inheretence laws I mentioned above. He had custody so the insurance company will likely figure that they have enough legal grounds for swearing out a criminal compaint for theft.

If there was a real "theft" you Mom can ask the police to file theft charges that your Dad should have done and if there is no insurance, Dad and girlfriend can be sued by your Mom for neglegence, which could result in a payout of $75,000 plus punitive which in this case is about $250,000 - $300,000.

If the lawyer takes half that still leaves $150,000+ for you and sister.

I read the answers about not suing family. Don't believe it. 99.9 percent when an inheretence disappears it was the trustee who took it. I've covered so many items of parents who were convicted for stealing their children's inheretences I've lost count. All that money and it is in their hands and then they think do I really want to give it away, Mom should have given it to me, I'm her son, not the grandchildren. No, when inherentences and trusteeships are involved the trustee is informed of their legal responsibilty during the processing of the will. I've seen parents cheat their children so so so many times.

Answer 2

More then likely I will not go there but yes because your father had no right to take it to a girlfriend house and "Quote and UN Quote it was stolen if that was the true I wouldn't know if it was my child I would put it in a safe deposit box at a local bank I have two safe Deposit box at my local bank wonder
to me that was irresponsible on his part having that much valuable around only for it to be stolen at his girlfriend house I would say this sue or talk with a lawyer

Answer 3

Maybe your dad had it insured...if so I wouldn't worry about it the insurance will take care of it.
The last thing you want to do is try to sue family, especially your father over material items.....the money no matter how poor you are is not worth the love and bond of family

Answer 4

You would have to prove that your father was negligent in securing the jewelry or that the g/f had a part in the robbery...it is not advisable to sue your family unless they wronged you....