sad problem

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seekingadvice70

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Recently, I lost my brother. He was only 38 years old and the whole family was shocked and devastated. My Father took charge of the funeral planning. The bill totalled 6,200 dollars, for which my father drained his personal bank account for and paid immediately. We recieved many condolence cards. Some of which were addressed "to the family of.." and some of which were addressed directly to my parents, and some were addressed to his wife.

My parents have given all of the cards which were addressed to her, directly to her, and she has spent that money on personal bills and such, and wants the rest of the money. The rest of the money, totalling $2,100 my parents are holding right now, and wondering if it is legally thiers for the funeral costs, or if it is rightfully my brothers' wifes, even though she didn't pay any costs toward the funeral.

My parents are just devastated over this whole thing, and I just wanted some advice as to what their rights would be here.

If this did go to court, which is is looking like it might. Would letters from the people involved be helpful, or necessary. By that I mean, the people who gave money writing out and signing papers that say their money was intended for the cost of the wake, funeral, breakfast and burial?

Thanks for any advice on this matter.
 
The cards addressed directly to your mom and dad with money/checks belong to them. They are under no obligation to give the money to the wife. If a card was addressed to them and included the wife (family of) they should split the money in half, but if the sender said it was to help with funeral, wake, etc... expenses then it is their's (parents) since they paid for everything. An after the fact statement may not help in court but if it was stated in the card at the time the money was sent it would. If it goes to court make sure your parents take the receipts for the funeral expenses. Was there life insurance that the wife received? If so your parents could counter sue for the cost of the funeral as it was the wife's responsibilty. Is she so desparate for cash she would take your parents to court?
 
Thank you for responding.
Sadly, she is very desperate for money, so we're not sure what she'd do.
There was no life insurance policy on the wifes part, but my Father did have a small policy which still won't cover his expenses even with all of the gift monies recieved.
 
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