DeMartini

STATEMENT OF FACTS

This prolonged dispute began innocuously enough, with testamentary documents executed by James P. DeMartini, Sr., and his wife Thelma,1 which divided their fairly extensive real property holdings, a single building in Marin County and numerous parcels in Nevada County, equally among their eight children. The real property so divided and conveyed by James, Sr., and Thelma over the years through intervivos gifts or by estate bequests consist of a commercial property on Bolinas Avenue in San Anselmo (the San Anselmo property), numerous undeveloped parcels of a Nevada City Ranch Property referred to as the Empress Ranch, subdivided from a total of 420 acres that served as the family home, the Empress Mine mineral rights with a stipulated value of zero also located in Nevada City on some of the ranch parcels, a commercial building at 102 Catherine Lane in Grass Valley occupied by a pharmacy, two other occupied medical buildings on Catherine Lane in Grass Valley, an unimproved lot on Dorsey Drive in Grass Valley, and a vacant lot located in Nevada City. The parties before us are the eight children of James, Sr., and Thelma and their spouses, who received the bequests…