Ballard v. Pritchard

In her will, Juanita Carter devised a life estate in her homestead to her spouse, Pinkney Carter, with the remainder to go to one of her adult sons, Ronald Williams (plaintiff), in fee simple. Juanita did not devise any real property to her other son, Robert Williams. In 2002, Juanita died. In 2017, Robert died, and Lindsay Ballard (defendant) was his sole heir. In 2019, Pinkney died. In 2020, Ronald sought to administer Juanita’s estate. Ballard petitioned for a determination of homestead status and alleged that Juanita’s devise in her will was invalid. Ballard argued that the invalidity of the devise caused the homestead to pass according to the laws of intestacy, under which Pinkney obtained a life estate and Ronald and Robert obtained the remainder interest, in equal shares. For his part, Ronald argued in favor of upholding Juanita’s will or that any objection to the validity of the will had been waived though Pinkney’s enjoyment of a life estate in the homestead or the passage of time without any asserted objections. The trial court entered an order effectively upholding Juanita’s will, and Ballard appealed. Subsequently, Ronald died, and his interest in the litigation was transferred to his children, including Kristen Pritchard (plaintiff). On appeal, it was uncontested that the property at issue was Juanita’s homestead. Pritchard maintained that certain equitable principles, like waiver by estoppel, could be considered to uphold Juanita’s intention of leaving the remainder interest in the homestead to Ronald alone.