Wrongful Death

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therex10

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We filed a wrongful death lawsuit for my father in law & just won a sizable amount-90% wrongful death, 10% pain & suffering. The lawyers who we filed with told my husband at the time since we didn't name his sister on the suit- she couldn't touch it but she could file her own (it was in his name only-as he became the administrator of the estate since she didn't want to have anything to do with it). His sister also signed off in handwritten form at the time right after the death in front of another lawyer because she was afraid she would get stuck paying some of his bills & funeral expenses.This has been 4 years.

We now found out that my sister in law may be entitled to 1/2 of this amount (wants to sue us) in spite of the fact that we did not name her on the suit because she is a gambler-basically incompetent (she is almost 50 & spent 67,000 in 4 months of her own lawsuit, goes to BINGO 12 times a month-spends $700 a month on it)-she refused to help us 4 yrs ago when he died - pay for ANY of the estate or associated funeral or bills & costs-including refused to help us clean out the house-didn't even buy him funeral flowers, has not been to his grave, barely saw him & had nothing to do with him when he was alive-this suit was for loss of companionship. She does not pay her bills (her 73 year old mother does).

In addition-she is on Social security & hasn't worked a day in her life. We had to take off work, lost tons of money to clean out the house (took us 6 months for a 15 room house) & did not get the life insurance (exwife did) so we paid for everything. On the other hand-my husband constantly saw his dad, our son was 12 when he died & did not get to go hunting & fishing with him like intended,etc.

This suit was supposedly for loss of companionship which my sister in law lost nothing whatsoever because she didn't see him & never called him. My husband saw him weekly & spoke with him at least as much. My husband filed this on his own with the attorneys, did all the paperwork, saw his doctors & got written verification, spoke with drug reps, went to court for him, filed his taxes, found the meds in the house, etc- basically did all the work for the suit & everything. Now that there is money involved she wants to make it sound like her & her dad were best friends. She has also stated- too bad tough luck you paid for the funeral & bills, cleaned the house, etc-I'm not paying any of it or his bills or the lawyers- I don't have to and I am entitled to 1/2 the money since I am owed it as firstborn & I'm getting it.

I should let you know that he died without a will, my husband is the administrator of the estate & she came to the house & took everything she wanted at the time.He left no money & had nothing substantial of value-including the house which he had second mortgaged without life insurance-we lost everything.

Can we do anything about this? Right now a lawyer is holding the money in his account as we are not agreeing to give her 1/2 when she basically disowned & denied him & did nothing personally, financially, or with the funeral. We told the lawyer to send the money back as we would rather have nothing if she is getting 1/2 of it for all the work & finances we have done.

The lawyer is basically on her side & says for us to 'hold off getting another specialist lawyer to fight this" We think something is going on & there may be a loophole somewhere for situations such as ours and he doesn't want us to know. What can we do? Can we fight this & if so can we win? If not- can we keep her from getting 1/2? Can we send the money back & if so- what will happen if we do? We can prove what we have paid with receipts & that she had nothing to do with him. Thanks for any help or advice you can give!
 
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