Estate of Toles CA2/3

INTRODUCTION

Respondent Cynthia Yvonne Edwards was the surrogate daughter of Alonzo and Estellar Toles and cared for them for the last 20 years of their lives. When Alonzo Toles died in the early 1990s, he left a will bequeathing the Toleses’ Compton house to Edwards. Although Edwards never probated the will or transferred the deed, she has lived in the house, maintained it, and paid the property taxes ever since. In 2015, a group of Alonzo Toles’s nieces and nephews, led by Eugene Davis, filed a petition to determine succession to the house and have themselves declared Alonzo’s heirs. They didn’t notify Edwards. The probate court granted the petition, and the relatives sold the property to appellant Green’s Development, LLC, which is owned by Alton Green, Edwards’s brother-in-law. Edwards finally learned about the probate and sale when a notice of eviction was posted on her door and an unlawful detainer action was brought against her. In response, Edwards moved to set aside the court’s succession order, arguing that Eugene Davis had unlawfully failed to notify her of the probate proceedings. The trial court agreed, and, after a bench trial, granted the set-aside petition. On…