Case Name: Barbara North BURTON, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Bertha Goldstein, Deceased, and Miami Country Day School, Inc., Appellants, v. Emmitt KINCHENS, Appellee
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1997-07-23
Citations: 696 So. 2d 1349
Docket Number: No. 96-3566
Parties: Barbara North BURTON, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Bertha Goldstein, Deceased, and Miami Country Day School, Inc., Appellants, v. Emmitt KINCHENS, Appellee.
Judges: Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and JORGENSON and LEVY, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 696
Pages: 1349–1349

Head Matter:
Barbara North BURTON, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Bertha Goldstein, Deceased, and Miami Country Day School, Inc., Appellants, v. Emmitt KINCHENS, Appellee.
No. 96-3566.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, Third District.
July 23, 1997.
Koppen, Watkins and R. Daniel Koppen and Philip Carlton, Jr., Miami, for Barbara North Burton.
Metsch & Metsch and Lawrence R. Metsch, Miami, for appellee.
Before SCHWARTZ, C.J., and JORGENSON and LEVY, JJ.

Opinion:
PER CURIAM.
The trial court granted the appellee's motion for a partial summary judgment holding, as a matter of law, that the signed change of beneficiary forms, which deleted the name of the appellee as the trust beneficiary of the in-trust-for account, were ineffectual. In doing so, the trial court relied on appellee's interpretation of the application of § 655.82, Fla. Stat. (1995). We hold that it was error for the trial court to do so.
Clearly, as appellant points out, there is nothing in section 655.82 that would diminish the effectiveness of the change of beneficiary forms that were signed by the decedent in this case. Accordingly, the partial summary judgment entered below must be reversed.
Naturally, nothing in this opinion, or the appeal from which it emanates, affects or concerns either Count II of the Second Amended Petition or the alternative Undue Influence argument set forth in Count I of the Second Amended Petition.
Reversed.