Opinion ID: 2607318
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Estate's Sale of Its Interest in Carroll-Vondra, Inc.

Text: A personal representative is a fiduciary who has a duty to act as a prudent person caring for the property of another would. AS 13.36.075. Paula alleges that Donna violated the standard of care by failing to require a sufficient price for the sale of the estate's stock in Carroll-Vondra, Inc. More specifically, she contends that (1) Donna's duty required her to obtain an appraisal, and (2) Donna should have placed the stock on the open market. As a result of that inaction, Paula alleges, Donna did not know what assets the corporation possessed; specifically, she did not know the corporation had a quarry capable of generating a net income of $543,600 per year. She admits, however, that this net income figure is speculative. Donna's first response is that Paula cannot now criticize the sale or the ruling because she did not timely oppose Donna's motion for superior court approval of the stock sale. She offers four sub-arguments, which amount to the same point: Paula consented and therefore waived her right to object to the sale of the estate's interest in the corporation. This contention is correct. Paula protests that she did not have full information about the corporation's assets or their value. Nonetheless, she did know enough to raise her objections earlier. That is, she knew that there had been no appraisal or public offering. Her current argument is that any personal representative who takes neither of those measures before selling stock is negligent. The knowledge of what measures Donna had or had not taken was enough to prompt such an argument earlier. Paula waited one and one-half years after the sale occurred to challenge it, knowing all the while there had been no appraisal. Additionally, one of the most significant alleged consequences of Donna's failure to have an appraisal done is ignorance of corporate assets. [8] Paula makes another argument: Donna was negligent because she sold the stock at a price that was too low. Yet Paula acknowledges that she does not know what the quarry is really worth, and the probate master found that she had not properly introduced any evidence establishing a value different from the sale price. Paula submitted a report to the superior court that estimated a value that was much higher than the sale price. Yet she did not establish the qualifications of Strandberg nor did she object to Donna's motion to strike which was based on that failure. Thus, we hold it was not improper for the superior court to grant the motion to strike. [9] Based upon our review of the record we hold that the superior court did not abuse its discretion in denying Paula's motion to set aside the estate's sale of its stock in Carroll-Vondra, Inc. As noted above, with full knowledge that the personal representative had not obtained an appraisal of the corporation's assets, Paula failed to object to the superior court's approval of the sale of the estate's stock in Carroll-Vondra, Inc. Furthermore, Paula delayed approximately one and one-half years after the sale received court approval before challenging it (again with full knowledge that there had been no appraisal). Given Paula's consistent failures to raise objections in a timely manner, it was not an abuse of discretion on the superior court's part to reject Paula's motion to set aside the estate's sale of its stock in Carroll-Vondra, Inc. [10]