State v. Rudawski (In re Estate of Tim)

Jacob Tim, a wealthy man who was born bearing the name Jacob Timiansky, died intestate in Florida. Tim was unmarried and did not recognize any relatives during his life. Tim was originally from Brest-Litovsk, Russia, where many other, unrelated families lived who shared the surname Timiansky. The administrator of Tim’s intestate estate filed a petition for determination of heirship. In response, 53 persons claiming varying degrees of relation to Tim appeared to litigate a claim to Tim’s estate. Five out of those 53 were the Rudawski Group (defendants). Subsequently, the State of Florida (plaintiff) filed a claim of escheat for Tim’s estate. The probate judge ruled that Tim’s estate should escheat to Florida, holding that none of the 53 claimed heirs had provided sufficient proof of valid heirship and that simply sharing a hometown and a last name were insufficient bases to claim heir status. The Rudawski Group appealed, arguing that the burden was on the state to prove no heirs existed and that the escheat statute must be construed liberally in favor of the existence of heirs. Florida countered, arguing that the state only needs to perform a diligent search for heirs to satisfy the escheat statute. The court of appeals reversed, finding that the members of the Rudawski Group had established their status as Tim’s heirs. The case was then certified to the Florida Supreme Court as a question of great public interest.