Court Opinion

ID: 9712218
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:49:24.943+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:11.021727
License: Public Domain

BAKER, Judge,
concurring in result.
I concur in the result reached by the majority and agree that no unjust enrichment or conversion occurred. However, I write separately because I believe that this is not the proper forum to settle this dispute. As noted in our opinion, Inlow v. Henderson, Daily, Withrow & DeVoe, 787 N.E.2d 385, 391 (Ind.Ct.App.2003), matters concerning the estate of a deceased are entrusted to the probate court.
In the prior case, the Inlow Children had attempted to pursue a claim of legal malpractice against Henderson Daily, alleging that the Inlow estate had been damaged because of Henderson Daily's negli-genee. Id. at 390. We held that the trial court properly dismissed the Inlow Children's claims, noting that "the entire Probate Code-exeept provisions that permit dispensing with administration altogether-considers the personal representative the focal point of overseeing claims on behalf of the estate." Id. at 391. Furthermore, we held that "[the probate *820court and the personal representative are in the best position to assess, among other things, the strength of a claim, the costs to the estate in pursuing it, and the desirability of closing the estate before certain assets depreciate in value." Id. at 399. Thus, it seems to me that the Inlow Children's claims should have been addressed to the probate court.
I note that this case was briefed subsequent to our opinion in Henderson Daily and was submitted after our decision to deny rehearing was issued on July 7, 2008. Thus, the Inlow Children's attorneys were on notice that the probate court was the proper forum in which to address these types of claims. Unless these attorneys have agreed to provide their services at no cost-if such is the case, I expect that the sun will rise in the west tomorrow-the morass of legal activity directed at Lawrence W. Inlow's estate simply amounts to the wanton depletion of the heirs' assets.
Thus, I would remand this case to the trial court with instructions that it transfer the same to the probate court and that it affix sanctions against counsel for the In-low Children.