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REPORTED IN THE COURT OF SPECIAL APPEALS OF MARYLAND No. 1928 September Term, 2003

MARION K. MCINTYRE, ET AL.

v.

PATRICIA K. SMYTH, ET AL., ADMINISTRATORS OF THE ESTATE OF MARION I. KNOTT

Murphy, C.J. Krauser, Bloom, Theodore G. (Retired, specially assigned), JJ. Opinion by Krauser, J.

Filed: September 17, 2004

When Marion I. Knott died, her Last Will and Testament named, as personal representatives of her estate, two of her children, appellees Patricia K. Smyth1 and Francis X. Knott, and, among other things, left her "tangible personal property" to her ten surviving children. In dispute is the fate of that property and its

implications for the standing of the decedent's other children to request judicial probate. If, as appellees Smyth and Knott

contend, that property was adeemed, before her death, appellants, who comprise six of the decedent's eight other children, had no standing to file a petition for judicial probate, and the decision of the orphans' court, dismissing that petition on those grounds, must be affirmed. But if, as appellants claim, the ademption of

that property was in dispute at the time that their petition was dismissed, then appellants did have standing, and the orphans' court erred in dismissing their petition for judicial probate. This matter commenced when, upon Mrs. Knott's death, appellees Smyth and Knott filed a petition for administration of a small estate, together with the decedent's with the Will and First of Codicil for

(collectively, Baltimore City. petition, was

the

"Will"),2

Register

Wills

The only asset of the estate, according to the a bank account, containing a little less than

In the Will, she is referred to as "Mary Patricia Knott Smith," but, in this case, she is referred to, by both sides, as "Patricia K. Smith." To avoid confusion, we shall use the latter name whenever we refer to her. The First Codicil directed the decedents' personal representatives to carry out the terms of the Knott Family Limited Partnership agreement and to sell her interest in the Partnership to the Partnership or its individual partners, "for fair market value with the sale proceeds" to be distributed as part of her residuary estate.
2

1

$13,000.

No

tangible

personal

property

was

listed.

After

admitting the Will to probate and appointing appellees, Smyth and Knott, as personal representatives of the estate, the register of wills sent notice of the appointment to all "interested persons." In response Martin to G. that Knott, notice, Sr.3 seven and of decedent's Marion other Knott

children:

appellants

McIntyre, Alice K. Voelkel, Margaret K. Riehl, Mary Stuart K. Rodgers, Sarah Lindsay K. Harris, and Rose Marie Porter, filed a petition for judicial probate in the Orphans' Court for Baltimore City, requesting, among other things, a plenary hearing and the appointment of an independent personal representative to conduct an investigation into whether the actions purportedly taken by the decedent or by others on her behalf or on behalf of her estate "were in accord with her intent." Appellees filed a response to that petition, requesting that the orphans' court dismiss appellants' petition and re-appoint them as personal representatives, as their administrative appointment ended, in accordance with ET

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Maryland Law