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Final Copy 289 Ga. 420 S11A0043. MELICAN v. PARKER et al. MELTON, Justice Harvey Strother, who was domiciled in Georgia, bequeathed a Florida condominium to his long time mistress, Anne Melican.1 Prior to his death, however, Strother entered a contract to sell the condominium. Although Strother died before the closing date for the sale of the condominium, the condominium was nevertheless eventually sold pursuant to the agreement that Strother had entered before he died. When Melican filed an action in the Probate Court of Cobb County, Georgia, to collect the proceeds from the sale of the condominium, A. Sidney Parker, executor and trustee of the testamentary marital trust, and David Strother, Jr., the deceased's grandson and beneficiary under the Will (hereinafter collectively "Parker"), filed a

This appeal concerns the Second Codicil to Strother's Will, which bequeaths the Florida condominium to Melican. In a prior appeal, this Court found a prior codicil to Strother's Will (the "First Codicil") to be invalid, and also upheld a jury verdict that had found a later codicil to the Will (the "Third Codicil") to be invalid. See Parker v. Melican, 286 Ga. 185 (684 SE2d 654) (2009). This Court upheld the validity of the Second Codicil. Id. The First and Third Codicils are not at issue in the present appeal.
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response as caveators to the Will.2 Parker claimed that the bequest of the real property in question had been adeemed3 based on the sale, and that Melican therefore was not entitled to the proceeds from the sale. The probate court agreed with Parker, prompting Melican to appeal. As explained more fully below, because Florida's nonademption statute directly controls in this situation, and because the nonademption statute makes clear that a specific devisee of real property is entitled to collect any balance owed to a testator from the purchase of the real property in question at the time of the testator's death, the probate court erred in concluding that Melican was not entitled to the proceeds from the sale of the Florida condominium. Accordingly, we reverse. As the parties correctly concede, in Georgia, "[a] devise of real property will always be construed, as far as the effect of the will is

In another appeal involving these same parties, this Court held that Mr. Parker, in his capacity as Trustee of the Marital Trust, had standing to challenge the three codicils to Strother's Will. See Melican v. Parker, 283 Ga. 253 (657 SE2d 234) (2008).
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In general, "a specific testamentary gift is adeemed or destroyed, wholly or in part, when the testator for any reason does not own the subject of such gift at death." OCGA

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