My dad never disclosed his Florida property when he divorced my mom – am I owed my dead mother’s share?

There are some people whose propensity for violence and criminality makes them unfit to be parents. When such people sire offspring, their children are often subjected to extreme trauma and physical injury. The scars the children bear, both emotional and physical, may last them their lifetimes, and if the abusive parent is able to score a fortune later on, their victims may demand their fair share as restitution.

Criminals and Their Offspring

At Close Range (1986) starred Christopher Walken as a rural gangster and Sean Penn as the son who ultimately has to testify against him, after Walken’s character has killed Penn’s brother and raped his girlfriend. A critical hit, despite being a box-office flop, At Close Range is best remembered for its Madonna soundtrack hit song, “Live to Tell”. The film is based on the actual Pennsylvania criminal gang led by Bruce Johnston during the 1960s and 70s.

Unfortunately, At Close Range depicted a familiar scenario that transcends culture and geography – criminals and their offspring, who either are raised as victims or as successors in the family business. Lower-level criminals who lack the skills to stay out of jail inevitably wind up doing time, and often leave the remnants of broken families in their wake.  One survivor of a father’s felonious activities became a Reddit poster when she and her sister discovered that their father had come into a fortune after the Department of Transportation bought Florida land he owned a stake in back in the 1970s. The wrinkle is that their father never declared that asset when he and their mother divorced some 40-plus years ago. 

The poster described her past history with her father and the events leading to the discovery of his newfound fortune:

• The long-time alcoholic and physically abusive husband and father physically beat the poster, her mother, and her sister.
• The poster’s mother had to escape with her daughters from Chicago over fears of further harm, and went on the run.  
• In the interim, the father had a baby with another woman. Presumably during a bender, he purposely killed the infant. 
• When they returned to Chicago, the mother was able to get a restraining order against the father, who had been subsequently charged with murder and arrested. 
• The mother initiated divorce proceedings. The father contested, and then started a protracted custody battle, despite being in jail, only finally conceding after his conviction and sentencing. 
• The divorce decree was awarded in 1980.
• Although she doesn’t give details, the poster claims that while he was in jail, the father tried to hire a hitman to kill her and her boyfriend at the time.
• The mother has since passed away, and the father, now 75, has remarried to a woman who is equally alcoholic and dysfunctional. 
• A year ago, after being released from serving 26 years in prison, relatives informed the poster that the father had come into money and was repaying past debts from years ago.
• They discovered and relayed to the poster that her father had purchased Florida swamp land back in the 1970s with 3 other partners. The Department of Transportation had purchased the land for a highway project at a substantial current market price premium. The other 3 partners are all dead. 
• In reviewing her mother’s divorce papers, the poster found no mention of the property in the listing of marital assets, indicating intent to defraud. 
• Although she has retained counsel, she posted on Reddit to inquire if anyone had similar experiences from which she could reference. 

Legal Interpretations

The responses to the poster varied widely, from those who were dismissive and called her a lazy bitch for trying to squeeze money out of her father after 40 years, to those who genuinely analyzed her case and offered some helpful insights:

• Contrary to numerous comments stating that the statute of limitations had expired, a few attorneys pointed out that the clock starts ticking upon discovery of the fraud, not the date of the occurrence. 
• As the 3 other partners’ heirs were in the process of being contacted, one lawyer pointed out that the poster and her sister would only be entitled to possibly claim half of 25%, or 6.75% each for her and her sister. That would probably not be a sizable enough amount for an attorney to act on contingency, as the cost of reopening the divorce case and discovery would likely be very expensive and take years.
• Since the land was never foreclosed upon, the other partners likely paid the property taxes while the father was incarcerated, meaning it bolstered the poster’s case as to the father’s intent to defraud, rather than any potential excuse about it being “forgotten”.

Although the poster feels she has a legitimate case, she feels that she and her sister are in a better place now.  She has concluded that it is probably more prudent to let karma dictate her father’s fate at this stage, then to cause more strife.

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