Estate of John V Legittino

Case Number

24PR00289

Case Type

Hearing Date / Time

Mon, 07/15/2024 - 08:30

Nature of Proceedings

Review Hearing on Petition for Probate

Tentative Ruling

Probate Notes:

Appearances required.  After review of supplement filed on July 2, 2024, the following is noted for the Court at the hearing:

Defective Proof of Publication and failure of substantial compliance.  Recitation of a statute, without the evidence that statute requires, is insufficient to overcome a defect.  The supplement does nothing to explain why publication occurred in the wrong newspaper, and submits absolutely zero evidence to support Petitioner’s claim that the Santa Barbara Independent “is published within a true cross-section of the area of the county in which the decedent resided.” (Prob. Code, §8122.)

For example, Petitioner offers no evidence from the Santa Barbara Independent as to its circulation numbers in Solvang.  The Court should require the Petitioner to obtain actual evidence of those publication numbers in order to have sufficient evidence to make an express finding that the Santa Barbara Independent is distributed widely enough in the city of Solvang.  There also were no allegations included in the Declaration that explain how something as simple as clicking an easily accessible link on the Court’s website was not conducted to confirm a list of adjudicated newspapers for Solvang before carelessly publishing in the wrong publication.

According to the petition, the Decedent was a resident of Solvang, CA. The only newspaper adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation in the city of Solvang is the Santa Ynez Valley News, which is plainly obvious from the easily accessible list of “NEWSPAPERS ADJUDGED NEWSPAPERS OF GENERAL CIRCULATION FOR LEGAL ADVERTISING IN THE COUNTY OF SANTA BARBARA” on the Court’s website:

https://www.santabarbara.courts.ca.gov/system/files/general/legaladnewspapers_1.pdf

Thus, the hearing should be continued, and republication ordered by the Court for the new hearing date.

Appearances:

The court is open to the public for court business. The court is also conducting hearings via Zoom videoconference.

Meeting ID: 161 797 5412

Passcode: 8749009