By Sheila Pursglove
Legal News
Attorney David Skidmore, who has represented individuals eliminated from estate plans, notes many cases were not just about money, but about relationships and the emotional wound from being rejected, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly.
A partner with Warner Norcross + Judd in Grand Rapids, with a slew of awards and recognitions, Skidmore recalls his first will contest, where an elderly lady had left her substantial estate to charity — but in the last year of life, signed over all her assets to neighbors. Skidmore was assigned to find witnesses to whether the decedent had declined mentally when she made that move.
“I not only found witnesses who testified the neighbors had forcibly driven them out of the decedent’s life, but also witnesses who had firsthand knowledge the decedent had declined mentally and suffered delusions—including being kept awake by ‘aliens knocking at the windows,’” he said. “It was a classic case of mental incapacity and undue influence.
“Probate litigation is not only about trying to recover lost inheritances, but also trying to prove that damaged relationships were caused by an interloper’s interference and did not reflect the true intent of the decedent. It is very meaningful work.”
Skidmore was lead counsel for plaintiff siblings in a case involving elderly parents with five children. A coin collector, the father had told his children his collection’s value would pay for nursing home care if his wife survived him.
When both parents approached end of life, one son took the collection home for safekeeping — and delayed returning it after their deaths.
When he finally did, a logbook was missing.
The collection was professionally appraised at $20,000, far less than the father had believed.
Three siblings believed their brother had pilfered coins, the value of which the same appraiser estimated to be $1.2 to $3.2 million.
A jury returned a verdict of $2.2 million against the son. The court ordered his share of the estate forfeited and authorized seizure of other assets.
In another interesting case, a man with alcohol addition was survived by his second wife, who was entitled to their modest house, under the law of intestacy.
His children from his first marriage sued their stepmother in probate court, claiming she had bought their father alcohol that caused his death and she should be disinherited under Michigan’s “slayer statute.”
Overwhelmed with stress and the cost of litigation, the widow was on the brink of signing the house over to the stepchildren when Skidmore agreed to help. He got the lawsuit dismissed and the widow kept the house.
“It was a small matter, and I wrote off most of my fees, but it was very rewarding to protect this vulnerable person,” he said.
Skidmore also recalls a man with a revocable trust whose wife filed for divorce.
When marital assets were tallied, most were titled in the trust. The husband then left all the assets to his son from a prior marriage and, when the husband told the wife, she took no action.
But in their divorce action, the wife rejected the husband’s offer of 50 percent of all marital assets, holding out for more.
The man died before the divorce was finalized, and the divorce action was dismissed.
The wife received assets by right of survivorship but less than she would have received in a divorce and she sued the husband’s trust.
Representing the husband’s trust, Skidmore got all claims dismissed by the probate court, a ruling affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals.
“There was no evidence of fraud. The husband told his wife what he had done,” he said. “And it’s common for a person involved in a divorce proceeding to update his estate plan in light of the breakdown in the marital relationship.”
A Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Council, and a member of the American Bar Association, Skidmore also is a civil mediator with the Kent County Probate Court.
“Litigation is very expensive,” he said. “People involved in litigation report feeling miserable and unable to enjoy life. Going to trial is risky because it’s usually an all-or-nothing proposition, and the judge or jury could take a very different view of the matter.”
Skidmore said he attempts to “bring together feuding parties — who are usually related somehow — on an agreement for how to resolve the dispute, which is only possible if both sides are willing to compromise.
“I don’t tell the parties what to do, but I can give each side a frank and confidential assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of its case. I find it very rewarding when I can help bring about a settlement that ends current litigation and the threat of future litigation and allows the parties to put the dispute behind them and get back to enjoying life.”
The vast majority of Skidmore’s clients are individuals —lay persons — whom he will represent on a single legal matter.
“My clients have a steep learning curve,” he said. “I have to teach them not only about how civil litigation works, but also about the substantive trust and estate law that governs the dispute.”
Skidmore said most people who engage in disability-planning and/or estate-planning will designate a non-professional person, often a family member, to serve as agent under durable power of attorney, medical patient advocate, personal representative and/or trustee.
“The problem is, these are fiduciary roles, subject to an extensive body of fiduciary duty law, and lay people often have no idea of the legal requirements,” Skidmore said. “It’s very easy for lay persons to make mistakes and violate their fiduciary duties, and legal advice is often sought only after the mistakes have been made and caused a big mess. The best advice I can give a lay person serving in some kind of fiduciary role is to consult a respected trust and estate attorney before you start acting, for a primer on fiduciary duty law and mistakes to be avoided.”
Skidmore has worked at Warner for his entire 25-year career.
“This is a really special place. Warner attorneys took the time to train me how to be an excellent attorney,” he said. “When I started here, there was no litigator who did probate litigation full-time. Warner supported my goal to be a full-time probate litigator. Warner has supported my community engagement: when I coached a mock-trial team at the old Central High School, Warner bought them all suits for the competition.”
A member of the State Bar Pro Bono Honor Roll, Skidmore always tries to help when Legal Aid calls with a referral —“Because if we don’t help those who can’t afford to pay for legal services, then we’re denying the most vulnerable members of our society access to the justice system,” he said.
Skidmore earned his undergraduate degree in international relations, with high honors, at Michigan State University’s James Madison College, during which he did a public-sector governmental internship for Sen. Steve Frank in the Alaska State Senate in Juneau.
After graduation, he was hired to manage Frank’s re-election campaign, and then spent three years as a legislative and budget aide.
“I saw what an impact the law had on ordinary individuals, from the couple who wanted to legalize moose farming to the landlord who had limited recourse against the tenant who had trashed the apartment,” he said. “Becoming an attorney was the logical next step.”
He earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where he particularly enjoyed the civil litigation clinic.
A native of Belmont, north of Grand Rapids, Skidmore now lives in the west side of Grand Rapids. His wife Ruth is in-house counsel for Wolverine Building Group and Director of Legal for National Heritage Academies.
Their son, David, and daughter, Anna, are in undergraduate programs at Grand Valley State University. David aims to be a botany/soil science professor, and Anna is studying for the law school admission test.
Skidmore, who played in the Spartan Marching Band and was baritone section leader, enjoys art, literature, singing and theater; and believes his skills help with his courtroom presence.
“I know how to fill the room with my voice and, I hope, make my presentations interesting to the judge or jury,” he said. “Sometimes I visualize my job as developing a compelling narrative using the bucket of facts my client has dumped on my desk, so to speak. A good probate litigator needs to be a good storyteller, and I think my love of literature helps me in that regard.”
Legal News
Attorney David Skidmore, who has represented individuals eliminated from estate plans, notes many cases were not just about money, but about relationships and the emotional wound from being rejected, sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly.
A partner with Warner Norcross + Judd in Grand Rapids, with a slew of awards and recognitions, Skidmore recalls his first will contest, where an elderly lady had left her substantial estate to charity — but in the last year of life, signed over all her assets to neighbors. Skidmore was assigned to find witnesses to whether the decedent had declined mentally when she made that move.
“I not only found witnesses who testified the neighbors had forcibly driven them out of the decedent’s life, but also witnesses who had firsthand knowledge the decedent had declined mentally and suffered delusions—including being kept awake by ‘aliens knocking at the windows,’” he said. “It was a classic case of mental incapacity and undue influence.
“Probate litigation is not only about trying to recover lost inheritances, but also trying to prove that damaged relationships were caused by an interloper’s interference and did not reflect the true intent of the decedent. It is very meaningful work.”
Skidmore was lead counsel for plaintiff siblings in a case involving elderly parents with five children. A coin collector, the father had told his children his collection’s value would pay for nursing home care if his wife survived him.
When both parents approached end of life, one son took the collection home for safekeeping — and delayed returning it after their deaths.
When he finally did, a logbook was missing.
The collection was professionally appraised at $20,000, far less than the father had believed.
Three siblings believed their brother had pilfered coins, the value of which the same appraiser estimated to be $1.2 to $3.2 million.
A jury returned a verdict of $2.2 million against the son. The court ordered his share of the estate forfeited and authorized seizure of other assets.
In another interesting case, a man with alcohol addition was survived by his second wife, who was entitled to their modest house, under the law of intestacy.
His children from his first marriage sued their stepmother in probate court, claiming she had bought their father alcohol that caused his death and she should be disinherited under Michigan’s “slayer statute.”
Overwhelmed with stress and the cost of litigation, the widow was on the brink of signing the house over to the stepchildren when Skidmore agreed to help. He got the lawsuit dismissed and the widow kept the house.
“It was a small matter, and I wrote off most of my fees, but it was very rewarding to protect this vulnerable person,” he said.
Skidmore also recalls a man with a revocable trust whose wife filed for divorce.
When marital assets were tallied, most were titled in the trust. The husband then left all the assets to his son from a prior marriage and, when the husband told the wife, she took no action.
But in their divorce action, the wife rejected the husband’s offer of 50 percent of all marital assets, holding out for more.
The man died before the divorce was finalized, and the divorce action was dismissed.
The wife received assets by right of survivorship but less than she would have received in a divorce and she sued the husband’s trust.
Representing the husband’s trust, Skidmore got all claims dismissed by the probate court, a ruling affirmed by the Michigan Court of Appeals.
“There was no evidence of fraud. The husband told his wife what he had done,” he said. “And it’s common for a person involved in a divorce proceeding to update his estate plan in light of the breakdown in the marital relationship.”
A Fellow of the American College of Trust and Estate Council, and a member of the American Bar Association, Skidmore also is a civil mediator with the Kent County Probate Court.
“Litigation is very expensive,” he said. “People involved in litigation report feeling miserable and unable to enjoy life. Going to trial is risky because it’s usually an all-or-nothing proposition, and the judge or jury could take a very different view of the matter.”
Skidmore said he attempts to “bring together feuding parties — who are usually related somehow — on an agreement for how to resolve the dispute, which is only possible if both sides are willing to compromise.
“I don’t tell the parties what to do, but I can give each side a frank and confidential assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of its case. I find it very rewarding when I can help bring about a settlement that ends current litigation and the threat of future litigation and allows the parties to put the dispute behind them and get back to enjoying life.”
The vast majority of Skidmore’s clients are individuals —lay persons — whom he will represent on a single legal matter.
“My clients have a steep learning curve,” he said. “I have to teach them not only about how civil litigation works, but also about the substantive trust and estate law that governs the dispute.”
Skidmore said most people who engage in disability-planning and/or estate-planning will designate a non-professional person, often a family member, to serve as agent under durable power of attorney, medical patient advocate, personal representative and/or trustee.
“The problem is, these are fiduciary roles, subject to an extensive body of fiduciary duty law, and lay people often have no idea of the legal requirements,” Skidmore said. “It’s very easy for lay persons to make mistakes and violate their fiduciary duties, and legal advice is often sought only after the mistakes have been made and caused a big mess. The best advice I can give a lay person serving in some kind of fiduciary role is to consult a respected trust and estate attorney before you start acting, for a primer on fiduciary duty law and mistakes to be avoided.”
Skidmore has worked at Warner for his entire 25-year career.
“This is a really special place. Warner attorneys took the time to train me how to be an excellent attorney,” he said. “When I started here, there was no litigator who did probate litigation full-time. Warner supported my goal to be a full-time probate litigator. Warner has supported my community engagement: when I coached a mock-trial team at the old Central High School, Warner bought them all suits for the competition.”
A member of the State Bar Pro Bono Honor Roll, Skidmore always tries to help when Legal Aid calls with a referral —“Because if we don’t help those who can’t afford to pay for legal services, then we’re denying the most vulnerable members of our society access to the justice system,” he said.
Skidmore earned his undergraduate degree in international relations, with high honors, at Michigan State University’s James Madison College, during which he did a public-sector governmental internship for Sen. Steve Frank in the Alaska State Senate in Juneau.
After graduation, he was hired to manage Frank’s re-election campaign, and then spent three years as a legislative and budget aide.
“I saw what an impact the law had on ordinary individuals, from the couple who wanted to legalize moose farming to the landlord who had limited recourse against the tenant who had trashed the apartment,” he said. “Becoming an attorney was the logical next step.”
He earned his J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School, where he particularly enjoyed the civil litigation clinic.
A native of Belmont, north of Grand Rapids, Skidmore now lives in the west side of Grand Rapids. His wife Ruth is in-house counsel for Wolverine Building Group and Director of Legal for National Heritage Academies.
Their son, David, and daughter, Anna, are in undergraduate programs at Grand Valley State University. David aims to be a botany/soil science professor, and Anna is studying for the law school admission test.
Skidmore, who played in the Spartan Marching Band and was baritone section leader, enjoys art, literature, singing and theater; and believes his skills help with his courtroom presence.
“I know how to fill the room with my voice and, I hope, make my presentations interesting to the judge or jury,” he said. “Sometimes I visualize my job as developing a compelling narrative using the bucket of facts my client has dumped on my desk, so to speak. A good probate litigator needs to be a good storyteller, and I think my love of literature helps me in that regard.”
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