In re Estate of Glenda Joyce Panter Hillis

The surviving husband of the decedent challenges the validity of their 1992 antenuptial agreement and a 2010 quitclaim deed from the decedent to her son. The decedent, Glenda Joyce Panter Hillis, presented her husband with an antenupital agreement on the day before their wedding. The agreement stated that each party waived “all claims of inheritance, descent and distribution in and to the parties [sic] private and real property . . . which in any way or manner arise or accrue by virtue of said marriage . . . .” However, it did not include any financial or asset disclosures. The husband signed the agreement, and the parties married on December 30, 1992. In March of 2010, Mrs. Hillis executed a will that left her husband a car and a life estate in her real property, including some of the personal property in the marital residence, with the residue of her estate going to her son. Three months later, she executed a quitclaim deed pursuant to which she transferred a life estate in all of her real property to herself and her husband, with the remainder to her son. Mrs. Hillis died in 2012, following which her will was admitted to probate. Soon thereafter, her husband filed a petition for an elective share and a separate civil action in which he sought to invalidate the 2010 quitclaim deed as a fraudulent conveyance. The executor and Mrs. Hillis’s son opposed both petitions. The son demanded a jury trial regarding the validity of the antenuptial agreement, but the trial court concluded there was no way to separate the legal and factual issues without confusing a jury and consolidated both cases for trial. Following a bench trial, the court concluded that the antenuptial agreement was invalid because it did not include the required disclosures about Mrs. Hillis’s assets and because it contained contradictory provisions. As for the 2010 quitclaim deed, the court ruled that the conveyance was not fraudulent and refused to set the deed aside. All parties appeal. The son contends the court erred in denying him a jury trial. The son also contends the court erred by invalidating the antenuptial agreement. The husband contends the trial court erred by denying his petition to invalidate the 2010 quitclaim deed. We find no reversible error with the decision to deny the son’s request for a jury trial. We affirm the trial court’s decision to invalidate the antenuptial agreement because the agreement did not include the requisite financial and asset disclosures. We affirm the decision concerning the 2010 quitclaim deed because the evidence does not preponderate against the trial court’s finding that the 2010 transfer was not fraudulent.