Dispute over will is resolved
The dismissal was by agreement of the parties.
WARREN -- The dispute over a city man's will which left the bulk of his estate to a former city treasurer has been resolved, and the estate will be disbursed according to law.
Judge Thomas Swift of Trumbull County Probate Court on Friday dismissed Maria Bernat's contest over the will of her father, Tadeusz Stefanowicz, who died in May 2002.
The dismissal was by agreement of the parties, the judge said.
The parties also agreed to withdraw from probate the will that Bernat had contested, Judge Swift said.
The estate will be probated according to the law, with Atty. Donald Ford Jr. as administrator, the judge said.
The law dictates disbursement of an estate based on relationship to the deceased person.
Will found in freezer
Relatives had thought the 71-year-old man didn't leave a will, but one was found in a freezer in his house a few months after his death.
That will, dated Jan. 24, 2002, left $2,500 to Stefanowicz's two sisters, $5,000 to his grandson and $100 to his daughter.
The rest of his $257,000 estate was left to Patricia Leon-Games, a former city treasurer who ran unsuccessfully in May for the Democratic nomination for mayor. She described herself as a friend of Stefanowicz's, who lived on Oakdale Drive Northwest.
Leon-Games also resigned Friday as executrix of the estate.
Ford had been appointed estate administrator before the will was found in the freezer.
A trial was set for last month but was postponed when attorneys told the court they were close to an agreement.
Neither side could be reached.