Opinion ID: 1484931
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: [¶ 2] The record, taken in the light most favorable to support the court's judgment, is as follows. See Batchelder v. Realty Res. Hospitality, LLC, 2007 ME 17, ¶ 3, 914 A.2d 1116, 1118. [¶ 3] Eldon Hunt was a widower with five sons: Forrest, Norman, Wilder, Eldon Jr., and Raymond. In 2005, Eldon completed a will. On February 1, 2007, following his death, the will was submitted for informal probate. In the will, Eldon divided and distributed a large parcel of property located in Newcastle. He devised separate parcels with cottages to Wilder, Raymond, Eldon Jr., and Norman (the brothers) and devised the remainder of the property as a Common Area to those four sons and his grandson Robert. Eldon's will indicated that he considered his son Forrest to have received [his] specific distribution[] during the lifetime and therefore did not devise any of the Newcastle property to Forrest. All parties agreed that the individual parcels resulting from the division of this real estate, as provided in the will, failed to conform to local zoning ordinance requirements of minimum lot size and frontage. [¶ 4] In August 2007, Wilder filed a petition for order of complete settlement pursuant to 18-A M.R.S. § 3-1002 (2009). Wilder sought a construction of the will that permitted distribution of the Newcastle real estate in accordance with a previous plan of distribution prepared in 2002, rather than the plan of distribution that was made part of the will. Wilder, Raymond, [1] and Eldon Jr. all asserted that Wilder's proposed construction was necessary in order to avoid violating the shoreline standards of Newcastle's land use ordinance. Forrest objected, asserting that the devise failed because it violated local zoning ordinances. On this basis, he asserted that the real estate should pour-over to the revocable living trust established in the residuary provision of Eldon's will, to be distributed equally among all of Eldon's children. Norman argued that the proposed construction was unnecessary because the real estate was functionally divided at an earlier time when the lots complied with the existing ordinance, and therefore the lots were grandfathered and the devise was legal at the time that the will was written. [¶ 5] The court heard evidence on the petitions on March 25, 2009, including the testimony of John Wood, a surveyor appointed by the court as an expert witness pursuant to M.R. Evid. 706(a). Wood proposed a revised plan for dividing the property that would satisfy local zoning requirements. This revised plan changed the boundaries of the common area and the boundaries of the individually owned lots; the size of the individually owned lots was increased at the expense of the common area and the boundaries between the lots were also altered. All of the intended beneficiaries of the devise supported Wood's revised plan and the court adopted it, rejecting Forrest's argument that the devise had failed. This appeal followed pursuant to 18-A M.R.S. § 1-308 (2009).