Legal Question on an inheritenance?

Question

Say a man and wife have 2 children, and no will or one that simply states that both children will inherit their estate50/50. The couple is married until the death of the husband. After a few years of the husband’s death, the wife is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Within a year of those diagnoses the surviving wife/mother signs over the family home with a quit claim deed to child one only. The second child knows all about this but takes no action, thinking that after the mom is dead that sibling one, will even up things and make things fair on their own. After a few more years the wife/mother dies. Sibling 2 waits patiently for some sort of action, but nothing happens, not even a hint. Effectively sibling one has inherited everything and the other nothing. It has been almost a year after the death of the mother and over 7 since she signed the quit claim deed. What action and what rights has sibling two got at this point? What action should he take if he has any hopes of receiving a fair inheritance?

Answer 1

File an action for the partition of the property into two because both of the siblings are entitled only to half of the property according to law.

Answer 2

The first thing that the sibling has to do is file an action challenging the transfer of property to the other sibling based on mental incapacity. Not knowing in which state this property is located, most states have a time limit on cases involving ownership of real property. That sibling has to talk to an attorney yesterday to get the case moving.

Assuming that the sibling is able to get the transfer set aside, then the will or the laws of inheritance would apply and the sibling would be entitled to a half-interest in the house and could request partition. Until the transfer is set aside, that sibling has no enforceable interest in the property.

This answer assumes that the Alzheimer's was severe enough to make the mother legally incompetent. If she was not legally incompetent, the transfer to the other sibling was valid (assuming no coercion or undue influence) and the laws of inheritance have nothing to do with this situation.

Answer 3

It would very much depend on the inheritance laws of the state the mother lived in, but it seems to me that since the property was quit-claimed years before the mother's death, it would not be subject to inheritance laws. It would be considered a gift to sibling 1. If sibling 2 had no promise in writing at the time of the deed transfer then he is, as they say, S.O.L.

The only recourse may be to sue on the grounds that the mother was incompetent to sign a legal document because of Alzheimer's. Only a lawyer from that state could tell you whether or not such an action could succeed.