Can you get out of a mediation agreement?
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Can you get out of a mediation agreement?
My brother and I were court ordered to a mediation in order to settle my mothers
estate. We both agreed to an auction at the time, and were both executors of the
estate. Since then my brother has been removed as an executor due to stealing
everything that had value from the estate. I would rather sell the estate then
auction it off? Is there anyway that he could have violated this contract, in
order to make it be thrown out? Or is there a way to make it be thrown out? Also,
could selling a property as real estate be the same as an auction in the courts
eyes? as long as its settled. This is in Kentucky by the way.
Thank You
Asked on December 16, 2018 under Estate Planning, Kentucky
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 5 years ago | Contributor
A mediation agreement is, as you state, a contract. You can only get out of a contract if:
1) You can show the other side committed fraud--lied about something material, or important, on which lie you reasonably relied (had no reasonable way to know the truth for yourself) in entering into the agreement (so the lie was done before you signed the agreement). Fraud can void contracts.
2) The other side violated a material provision of the agreement--it has to be a provision or term of the agreement itself, since anything wrong he did that is outside the agreement is not relevant to the contract. Such a material breach would let you treat the contract as terminated.
Note that if you are an executor, if your co-executor stole from the estate, you could sue him (actually, it's the estate suing him, through you as executor) to recover for the estate the value of what he stole.
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