Hello, Question for the Washington State,King County. In this Probate case there are 4 Administrators, I had been told that it

I would suggest that you remind the lawyer that he/she represents all 4 of the administrators and when there is not a clear majority for action he should request the court offer direction on how to proceed, allowing each administrator to submit facts/law for their respective positions on the potential litigation. The general rule is that an administrator is to take all necessary steps to collect and preserve assets of the estate (or properly belonging in the estate), including the filing of litigation if necessary. Even if 3/4 agree, you still need to make a wise business decision - if the litigation is going to cost $10,000 and the potential upside if you are successful is $20,000, you really need to consider the reasonableness of proceeding.

Hope this helps.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER
Mr. Post is licensed to practice law in KS and MO. The response herein is not legal advice and does not create an attorney/ client relationship. The response is in the form of legal education and is intended to provide general information about the matter within the question. Oftentimes the question does not include significant and important facts and timelines that if known could significantly change the reply unsuitable. Mr. Post strongly advises the questioner to confer with an attorney in their state in order to ensure proper advice is received.

Dear Seattle,

There may be another issue here. Who does the attorney represent? If he/she represents one of the Administrators who wants to bring suit & also represents another Administrator who does not want to bring suit, then the attorney has a conflict of interest, must immediately resign his representation, and cannot thereafter continue to represent anyone in the matter. This is the exact reason I am so hesitant to represent more than one PR in the same matter --- because if any dispute arises between them, I must resign & each party, if desired, then needs to engage their own counsel. An attorney representing more than one party in a matter cannot take sides among his/her clients, for example, by advocating for a position taken by one against the desires of another. The attorney must remain impartial.

Sincerely,
Richard Wills, WSBA 19720
www.washington-probate.com

Under Washington law, where there are multiple personal representatives in a non-intervention probate there needs to be agreement among the majority to take any action including bringing a lawsuit. See RCW 11.98.016. So your attorney should not have brought the lawsuit on behalf of any of the personal representatives without getting either that majority approval or instructions from the court. And I agree with Richard Willis that if he is representing all of you and you cannot agree on a way to move forward then he/she needs to withdraw.

That said, that suit has been brought and needs to be dealt with. There are two possible approaches. (1) the four of you can come to an agreement about what to do. You could do that by working with a mediator who would help you hammer out an agreement that you can all live with or you could agree to a minding arbitrator to decide what should happen or (2) you can petition the court for instructions.

The advantages of option #1 are many. First, if you are all going to continue to work together or even just be family together then it will be best to find a solution to this problem that you can all feel good about rather than let the winners gloat and the losers of this battle be bitter. Second, you can probably work out a solution in a mediation that will more custom fitted to your problem than a court can provide. (For example, can the parties that want the suit agree to pick up the costs and share in the rewards while leaving the rest of you out of the picture.) Third, the mediation is private so you don't all need to air your thought about the suit and its merits in open court which might not be ideal if you do end up going forward with it. And last, but not least, it may save the estate money not to have to have you all get your own counsel and fight this out.

If you can work out a solution on your own then you should be able to move forward one way or the other without the need to petition the court and/or all get your own counsel. However, if you do keep working with a single attorney a frank conversation needs to happen about what happened here and how to keep it from happening in the future. Is it possible that they attorney didn't know about the disagreement or that someone didn't respond to a notice that went to you about the action in time? You will need to decide if you all still feel good about using the attorney you have been using or if you need to start fresh.

Also, if you do go forward with the lawsuit make sure you get the best attorney to handle it. It is rare that the best attorney to handle your probate is also the best attorney to bring another suit on the estate's behalf unless they also have experience it that area of the law.

Jamie Clausen
Phinney Estate Law