Opinion ID: 2275208
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: The Florida personal property

Text: The executor failed to inventory separately as assets of the estate the personal furnishings which Mr. Tessier owned at his death in his house trailer in Florida. A bank officer testified that it was our job to attempt to get a figure for the trailer and contents at least that would equal or exceed the figure that the owner had placed on it that very year that he died, which we did. This was a technical violation of the Code, as well as of the existing law prior thereto. [3] Even though under 18-A M.R.S.A. § 3-611(b), a personal representative's failure to perform any duty pertaining to the office is made cause for removal when removal would be in the best interests of the estate, the Bank's failure in the instant case to include in the inventory of the estate's assets the decedent's household goods in his Florida trailer home may not be the cause for surcharge, where the breach of duty was formalistic only, the executor acted in good faith and the record shows that no loss ensued to the estate. Such omission was overlooked and characterized as a breach of only a directory regulation in Pettingill v. Pettingill, 60 Me. 411, 419 (1872). We conclude that no error was committed in this area.