A Chicago choose has shot down an try to void a will that will see $11miilion left to an inactive day care firm.
Cook dinner County Choose Daniel O. Tiernan made the choice Thursday, after listening to testimony from two males who say they witnessed the late Joseph Stancak signal the desire the 12 months earlier than he handed away at age 87 in 2016.
Mansoor Afzal and Asad Mahmood stated they noticed Stancak, a longtime recluse who lived in a modest five-bedroom in Gage Park, signal the desire at a New York actual property workplace in 2015.
Tiernan, in flip, accepted the might be allowed into proof in December, citing how state regulation required him to take action. The regulation requires jurists to approve a will if witnesses testified they had been current, and in possession of a transparent mind-set.
The choose, nonetheless, disclaimed the day’s proceedings had been merely paving the way in which for an inevitable authorized battle between Stancak’s 119 still-alive family, who laid declare to the fortune the person amassed over his life to be cut up between them.
Joseph Stancak (not pictured), left behind a $11million when he died in 2016. With no obvious will, officers deemed the fortune could be distributed to 119 family – written down in right here on this scroll compiled by attorneys Rodney and Kenneth Piercey
‘That is designed to be a restricted listening to,’ the choose stated as these family had claimed no will was penned on the time of Stancak’s demise.
‘It doesn’t preclude a extra formal will contest in a while.’
The ruling served as the newest installment within the now practically eight-year saga surrounding Stancak’s fortune, found by state officers after senior’s demise in December 2016.
Stancak, an unseemly man who generally walked down his road along with his arms clasped behind his again, had $21,000 in two Financial institution of America checking accounts, however had a hive of property in mutual funds or particular person securities.
Altogether, they amounted to greater than $11million – making the fortune the biggest unclaimed property in U.S. historical past, attributable to an absence of an apparent will.
Because the treasurer’s workplace obtained stories of those accounts, employees frantically labored to deal with the riches of historic proportions, efficiently finding greater than 100 of the person’s distant family – together with one lady who reside lower than 5 miles due west of Stancak’s home, however had no thought he existed.
Every had been in line for $100,000 payouts till the desire was offered in court docket this previous 12 months, paving the way in which for a authorized battle of epic proportions.
It got here within the type of petition filed in June 2023 asking Tiernan to simply accept a newly turned-up will – one which left his whole property to a New York firm, Sensible Youngsters Little one Care Inc, and the corporate’s president, Mahmood.
Stancak lived within the Chicago suburb of Gage Park, the place he not often ventured from this modest house on South Troy Road. A brand new will was discovered there final 12 months, sparking a now underway authorized battle
On Thursday Mahmood detailed his ties to the person in query, claiming he knew him by means of the daycare’s authentic founder’s son, Afzal.
Afzal testified that his father knew Stancak from when his father lived in Chicago within the late ’80s and ’90s, when they each labored as electricians.
He stated his father died the identical 12 months as Stancak, and that he solely discovered of Stancak’s demise one week in the past from Mahmood.
Mahmood advised the choose how he allegedly witnessed Stancak signal the desire solely found late final 12 months in his house whereas cleansing for a transfer, whereas claiming his daycare firm is inactive and has by no means had a bodily location.
Afzal stated Stancak generally visited Afzal’s father in New York after he moved there in 2002, after which he co-founded the daycare firm.
In 2015, he invited Afzal to witness the signing of his alleged will, Afzal claimed Thursday.
“Kids meant one thing to him,” Mahmood added.
Tiernan went on to approve the desire to be entered into proof, because the lawyer representing lots of the heirs who had been in line for the plum payouts accused Mahmood of forging the desire.
On Thiursday, a person accused of forging the brand new will testified how he allegedly witnessed the senior signal the newly surfaced doc in 2015
In a petition filed this month, the jurist, Ashley Coppola, made that argument, whereas citing how Stancak was in failing well being within the years earlier than he died.
This, she stated, would make it extremely unlikely he was planning to maneuver cross nation because the pair claimed.
Gregory Markwell, the administrator of Stancak’s property and lawyer representing Mahmood, stated he would reply to the petition by the following court docket listening to, slated for the primary week of August.
The son of Polish immigrants, Stancak was born in Chicago in 1929. His dad and mom moved there after residing in New Jersey for twenty years.
He had six siblings: Mary, Paul, Anna, John, Helen and Frances. Solely Anna and John married, however not one of the siblings ever had kids.
Stancak’s neighbors within the Chicago suburbs advised CBS that the aged man was quiet and frugal, usually seeing him undertake house repairs by himself.
He lived on South Troy Road at a modest, $325,500 house, which is listed as a 5 bed room, two bathtub, single-family house on Redfin.
The one proof that Stancak had any sort of wealth was his boat, named ‘Straightforward,’ officers stated. Public information present Stancak renewed his boating license yearly for the vessel earlier than turning 80.
When he died in 2016, first responders discovered him carrying a jacket within the house’s empty bathtub with warmth and electrical energy turned off.
