On Thursday July 18, 2024, at the conclusion of a three-day jury trial, a Codington County jury returned a unanimous win for our client—the Estate of Dennis Schmeling. The jury reached its decision in less than 50 minutes.
The challengers were two brothers and a nephew of the decedent, Dennis Schmeling. Dennis had drawn a will in 2002 that didn’t name any of them, and he did a new one in 2021 that again didn’t name any of them. They filed their lawsuit soon after Dennis died in 2021.
In South Dakota, and everywhere in the United States, a person has a right to leave their property to whoever they want. You don’t have to leave it to your closest blood relatives, and you don’t have to leave it equally to all relatives. Dennis didn’t.
As in most of these cases, the contest is filed by somebody feeling aggrieved about not getting named in a will. These issues happen more frequently when there isn’t a surviving spouse or children. The best defense for preventing a will contest is information. The more people who know your plans and can testify in support of them, the less surprise and mystery exist for a challenger to play off of.
Until eight years ago, even though Lee has tried more civil jury trials than most attorneys in the state, he had never tried an estate dispute case. Since then, we’ve tried a half dozen of them—and won them all.