In re Estate of Jack Hamel v. Theodore Parker, P.A.

Summary

The Florida Second District Court of Appeal held that homestead protection vested in the decedent's heirs at the time of death, even though no court order determining homestead had yet been entered. The heirs' sale of the condominium pursuant to the decedent's pre-death sales contract did not eliminate the protection, and the sale proceeds remained protected from the decedent's creditors' claims. The court reversed the trial court's order denying the petition to determine homestead.

Holdings

1. When property is homestead on the decedent's date of death and is devised to persons who qualify as heirs, homestead protection from the decedent's creditors' claims vests in and inures to those heirs at death.
2. A judicial order determining homestead is not a prerequisite to the existence or continuation of homestead rights.
3. The heirs did not lose homestead protection by transferring the condominium before entry of an order determining homestead, and the proceeds of the sale remained protected from the decedent's creditors.

Questions Presented

1. Whether homestead protection from creditors' claims vested in the decedent's heirs at death when the homestead was devised to them through a residuary clause permitting distribution in kind.
2. Whether the heirs lost homestead protection by selling the property pursuant to the decedent's predeath contract before entry of a judicial order determining homestead.
3. Whether the sale proceeds remained protected from claims of the decedent's creditors.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded