In 1998, husband promises wife to leave the marital condo to wife should wife pay off the outstanding mortgage on the marital condo. Wife then pays off the outstanding mortgage in June 1998. However, husband does not execute a valid will leaving the marital condo to wife. According to the unpublished appellate opinion "[a]t some point, Wanis created two wills: one leaving all of his property to Basali that was not signed, and another that was signed, but did not specify who was to receive his property. Neither is dated and neither contains any witness signatures." Hence husband passes away intestate, i.e. without a will. Wife then seeks to enforce an oral contract to distribute the marital condo to her against her late husband's estate. Husband's siblings challenge the contention that husband promised to leave wife the marital condo. The matter is adjudicated by the Los Angeles County Superior Court and an appeal resulting in an unpublished appellate decision follows...........
"Mamdouh M. Wanis died intestate, survived by his brother, appellant Michel Mikhail, and his wife, respondent Thanaa Basali. Pursuant to a Probate Code section 850 petition filed by Basali, the probate court granted Basali complete ownership of a condominium Wanis acquired before their marriage. Among the reasons for the ruling was that Wanis promised he would leave the condominium to Basali in his will if she paid off the remaining balance on its mortgage, Basali agreed to do so, and she fulfilled her end of the agreement. Mikhail challenges all of the probate court's rationales for ruling in Basali's favor."
"Here, the record contains substantial evidence from which the probate court could conclude it was highly probable that Wanis promised to leave the condo to Basali in exchange for Basali paying off the mortgage. Basali testified that Wanis told her he would write a will leaving "everything" to her if she paid off the mortgage. Her testimony is substantiated by Wanis's efforts to create a will leaving everything to Basali and contemporaneous bank records showing the mortgage was paid off around the time of the agreement. There is also sufficient evidence to support an implied finding of detrimental reliance: Basali used settlement funds she received from an injury at work and money received from her family abroad to pay off the mortgage, with the understanding that Wanis would leave the condo to her in exchange for her doing so. She thereafter invested time, energy, and thousands of dollars of community funds into renovating the property over a period of several years. Finally, there is sufficient evidence to support a finding that failure to enforce the oral contract would result in unconscionable injury to Basali—the loss of both her monetary investment and the home she shared with her now-deceased husband for nearly three decades. We turn to Mikhail's efforts to impugn the evidence."
Estate of Mamdouh M. Wanis, Los Angeles County Superior Court case number 19STPB01833
