MANE IANDOLI, APPELLANT,
v.
ANGELINA IANDOLI, AS PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE OF THE ESTATE OF LEWIS E. IANDOLI, APPELLEE
AI-generated. These summaries, headnotes, and key points are machine-generated and may contain errors or omissions. Always verify against the full opinion text below. Not legal advice.
The Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal upheld a probate court's approval of the sale of a $7 million shopping center from an estate to one of two residuary beneficiaries who was also the personal representative. The court held that where a will grants a general power of sale, the trial court properly approved the sale based on findings that the property could not be equitably divided or operated as a co-tenancy between the two beneficiaries.
The court affirmed the trial court's approval of the sale. The court held that where a will confers a general power of sale, an inquiry into 'necessity' for the sale is not appropriate, and the trial court properly relied on the Granger factors to conclude that the sale was authorized and made in good faith based on substantial evidence that the property could not be severed for in-kind distribution or effectively operated as a co-tenancy.
[1] A personal representative may petition for court approval of a sale of estate property when the will confers a general power of sale, particularly when faced with potenti…
[2] A court's finding that a residuary asset is not amenable to partition for in-kind distribution, supported by substantial competent evidence, justifies a sale of the asset…
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“an inquiry into "necessity" for the sale is not appropriate where the will confers a general power of sale”
Establishes the standard for evaluating sales authorized by a general power of sale in a will—the court need not find that the sale was strictly necessary.
Previewing 1 of 3 key quotes on this case — the court’s exact language, pinpointed for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceLewis E. Iandoli's will left one-half of the residuary estate to his surviving spouse, Angelina Iandoli, who was named personal representative. The ot…
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence© FLexlaw, Inc. — AI-generated enrichments are proprietary. All rights reserved.
Explore caselaw by topic → Browse Cotenancy cases and more on FLexlaw
HERSEY, Chief Judge.
The issue in this appeal is the propriety of a final judgment in probate proceedings authorizing the sale of a residuary asset of the estate to a residuary devisee who was also the personal representative.
The will of the decedent left one-half of the residuary to the surviving spouse, Angelina Iandoli. She was also named as persona] representative and is the appellee here. The other one-half of the residuary was' left to Marie Iandoli, the decedent’s daughter by a previous marriage, who is the appellant. Because of the impact of death taxes on the residuary, the actual shares of the residue are unequal, but that is not material to the issues involved in this, appeal.
Among the assets of the estate'-was a shopping center valued at $7,000,000. Because this asset was not amenable to partition for distribution, the personal representative decided to sell it. The acrimonious relationship between the two residuary beneficiaries was cited as the reason that an in kind distribution creating a co-tenancy would not be a viable alternative.
Appellee, as one of the two residuary beneficiaries, proposed to buy the shopping center at the stated value of $7,000,000. There is no supportable contention that the value is more or less than this figure, but appellant nonetheless contested the sale. The will contained a general power of sale. However, in recognition of the potential difficulty posed by section 733.610, Florida Statutes (1985), appellee petitioned for approval of the sale. That petition was granted, resulting in this appeal.
The factual issue which dominated the four-day hearing below was whether the property was severable; that is, whether it could be divided into two parts for in kind distribution with each part being able to function independently. The trial court made a substantiated finding that it could not.
A subordinate factual issue was whether the parties could effectively operate the shopping center as a cotenancy, and again the finding was negative.
Both findings support a conclusion that appellee was proceeding in good faith. We will not substitute our judgment for that of the trial court on these factual issues which are supported by substantial competent evidence. Ocean View Towers, Inc. v. First Fidelity Savings and Loan Association, 521 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988).
The trial court relied in part on the factors explicated in In re Granger, 318 So. 2d 509 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975), to support its conclusions that an inquiry into “necessity” for the sale is not appropriate where the will confers a general power of sale. The final judgment tracks each of the Granger factors in order to lend support to the ultimate approval of the proposed sale. We approve the Granger analysis while recognizing that it is not intended to foreclose other lines of inquiry where a conflict of interest issue is made by the pleadings.
Appellant’s additional arguments are that the sale benefits appellee to the detriment of appellant, that the figure of $7,000,000 represents a depressed value for the property, that the final judgment creates an option rather than a firm commitment and that the court erred in finding that appellant never made an offer, herself, to purchase the property.
No useful purpose would be served by a recital of the evidence on these issues and we therefore conclude with the observation that the trial court’s findings on these, as on the issues discussed earlier, were supported by substantial competent evidence.
Accordingly, we affirm.
AFFIRM.
DOWNEY and ANSTEAD, JJ., concur.
Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus
Citator
Authorities Cited
- Ocean View Towers, Inc. v. First Fid. Sav. & Loan Ass'n, 521 So. 2d 325 (Fla. 4th DCA 1988)
- In re Granger, 318 So. 2d 509 (Fla. 1st DCA 1975)