Entitled or not ?

T

tigerlee

New Member
Jurisdiction
Arizona
Hello , I caretaked for a individual for 3 & 1/2 years and he recently passed, there is a sum of money from his estate 103 thousand and it's in probate ,as his caretaker he owed me a good sum of money ,do I need to file something to that effect to get paid the money owed? Or am I just burnt ? What are my legal standings if any ? Thank you for reading this and your reply if you do !
 
tigerlee said:
Hello , I caretaked for a individual for 3 & 1/2 years and he recently passed, there is a sum of money from his estate 103 thousand and it's in probate ,as his caretaker he owed me a good sum of money ,do I need to file something to that effect to get paid the money owed? Or am I just burnt ? What are my legal standings if any ? Thank you for reading this and your reply if you do !
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When you say that he "owed [you] a good sum of money" for your caretaking, how much money is it and what does the $103,000 include? Your time? Out of pocket expenses necessary for his care? Something else? For any expenses you paid, do you have proof of those expenses? Are you a friend or relative of the deceased? Did you have any contract with the deceased for payment of any of this? Are you a beneficiary of the estate? If you were to be paid for your time, can you prove the contract? Ideally the contract should be in writing signed by the decedent.

In general, even without a contract, you'd be presumptively entitled to reimbursement of your out of pocket expenses for his care so long as you can prove the expense to the court's satisfaction. That typically means you need some kind of bill or receipt to prove the expense.

It's a different story when it comes to compensating you for the time you spent caring for him. You may need to prove the court that you and the deceased had a contract in which he agreed to pay you $X per hour (or whatever the financial arrangement was) and proof of the time spent. If you were a relative of friend of the deceased you may have to overcome a legal presumption that the time you spent was a gift to the decedent.

I suggest you consult a probate attorney (someone other than the lawyer the estate executor has hired for the estate) to get an answer to whether the estate owes you for taking care of the deceased and how much it might you cost to get it if the executor balks at paying you.

Note that any amount you get paid for the time you spent taking care of him is taxable income as an independent contractor. You may deduct the care expenses you had to pay for this activity unless the estate reimbursed you for those costs.

Typically you'd start the process to get paid by providing the executor with a proof of claim.
 
tigerlee said:
About $100,000.00. our agreement was in writing but only signed by a witness not notorized .
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I hope you meant to imply that the written agreement was signed by both you and the deceased, and that the deceased was mentally competent at the time he signed it. If that's the case then you've met at least one of the requirements of a valid contract, and perhaps two of them. The consideration provided by each side should be specific. If what you were to be paid is vague then you may have a problem getting what you claim is due to you. That wouldn't mean you'd get nothing, but it would mean that what you get would be decided by a judge or jury, and it might end up a chunk less than you are expecting. Signatures by witnesses are not generally required for a valid contract. But knowing there was a witness and the identity of the witness will be useful in tracking down the witness should someone raise a challenge to the validity of the decedent's signature. Having a witness who can testify that he saw the decedent sign it would likely be sufficient to deal with that challenge.
 

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