Estate of Lynda I Helland

Case Number

25PR00358

Case Type

Hearing Date / Time

Mon, 10/27/2025 - 08:30

Nature of Proceedings

Petition for Probate and Letters Testamentary

Tentative Ruling

Probate Notes:

Sarah Lieanne Monedero filed a Petition for Probate of Will and for Letters Testamentary on July 9, 2025. Attached to Monedero’s petition was a copy of the Last Will and Testament of the Decedent, Lynda Helland, and was signed and dated on October 29, 2009.  The petition has not received objection to date.

However, on July 18, 2025, Steven K. Hall and Associates lodged an original Last Will and Testament of Lynda Helland, presumably in that firm’s capacity as the custodian of the will.  That will was signed and dated on May 16, 2024.

The submission of the 2024 will does not necessarily create a contest between admission of the 2009 will and the 2024 will, because a will contest must be created by following statutory procedural requirements outlined in Probate Code section 8250. Those procedures have not been followed here.

Further, without a proponent of the 2024 will, the Court is under no obligation to determine if the 2024 will should be admitted to probate. (Prob. Code, §8252(a).)

The following must be submitted in support of the Monedero Petition:

Proof of Publication.  No proof of publication was filed.  Jurisdiction of the Probate Court is obtained by publication in accordance with Article 3 of Division 7, Part 2, Chapter 2 Probate Code.  (Prob. Code, § 8003(b).)

Publication requires the notice to be published in a newspaper adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation in the city of decedent’s residence (Prob. Code, §§ 8121, 7122) and to contain the substantially same language and format shown in Probate Code section 8100.  If the city of decedent’s residence has no newspaper adjudicated as a newspaper of general circulation, publication must occur “in a newspaper of general circulation in the county which is circulated within the area of the county in which the decedent resided or the property is located.” (Prob. Code, §8121(b).)

It is unacceptable to merely file a copy of the newspaper clipping as proof of publication.  A Petitioner must obtain an affidavit executed under the penalty of perjury by the person with authority to affect publication at the newspaper. (Prob. Code, §8124.)

Santa Barbara Independent has not been adjudicated a newspaper of general circulation in the city of Lompoc, where Decedent was a resident. 

PUBLICATION MUST OCCUR IN THE LOMPOC RECORD.