Steven L Holcombe | Attorney at Law

IN THE DISTRICT COURT OF OSAGE COUNTY, STATE OF OKLAHOMA

IN THE MATTER OF THE ESTATE OF                )

                                                                                     )           Case No. PB-2024-50

SANDRA LEE TODD, Deceased                             )

ORDER APPROVING FINAL ACCOUNTING AND DECREE DISTRIBUTING THE
ESTATE AND DISCHARGING PERSONAL REPRESENTATIVE 

            This matter comes on for hearing this 28th day of October, 2024, pursuant to a Final Accounting and Application for Decree Distributing the Estate and Discharging Personal Representative filed with this Court by Mark Dawson, Personal Representative of the Decedent’s Estate, on the 2nd day of October, 2024, and the Court proceeded to examine the Personal Representative’s Final Accounting and Application, and after inquiry of the attorney for the Personal Representative, examination of the pleadings on file herein, and there being no objections, the Court finds, adjudges and decrees:

            1. That due and legal notice of the time and place of this hearing on the Final Accounting and Application for Decree Distributing the Estate and Discharging Personal Representative filed herein on the 2nd day of October, 2024, has been given in the manner, form, and for the full time as required by law and the Order of this Court.

            2. That on the 17th day of June, 2024, the Probate Court ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the instrument bearing a date of the 11th day of April, 2006, as amended by a First Codicil bearing a date of the 11th day of March, 2013, was established as a valid Last Will and First Codicil by Sandra Lee Todd, and the same was admitted to probate on the 24th day of April, 2024, as and for the Last Will and Testament of Sandra Lee Todd, deceased, and that the same was thereby established as the valid Last Will passing the entire estate of said deceased as therein provided.

            3. That Sandra Lee Todd died on or about the 19th day of March, 2023, while a resident of Escondido, San Diego County, California. The Decedent was not a member of the Osage Nation but died leaving certain restricted Osage headright interests.

            4. That on the 17th day of June, 2024, the Probate Court ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that Sandra Lee Todd, deceased, was unmarried at her time of death and the following is her sole devisee and legatee under her Last Will and Testament dated the 11th day of April, 2006, as amended by her First Codicil dated the 11th day of March, 2013:

NAME / RELATIONSHIP/AGE / ADDRESSES

 Sandra Lee Todd Separate, Property Trust dated February 18, 2003, as amended / Revocable living trust / [REDACTED] 

Furthermore, there are no known heirs, devisees, legatees or residuary distributes of the Decedent, respectively, other than those identified above.  The Last Will bearing a date of the 11th day of April, 2006, as amended by a First Codicil bearing a date of the 11th day of March, 2013, was established as a valid Last Will and First Codicil by Order Admitting Will to Probate on the 17th day of June, 2024, and controls the passing of the entire estate of said deceased as therein provided subject, however, to the giving of a Disclaimer of Osage Headright Lifetime Interest by Wounded Warrior Project, Inc. as described in more particulars, below.

            5. That on the 17th day of June, 2024, the Probate Court ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that Letters Testamentary be issued to Mark Dawson, as Personal Representative of said estate, to serve without bond, and the same were issued and filed with the Probate Court on the same date.

            6. That a GENERAL INVENTORY AND APPRAISEMENT was timely filed herein by the Personal Representative on the 8th day of July, 2024, and the estate consists only of a restricted Osage Indian headright interest and cash on hand in an IIM account.

            7. That the Estate of Sandra Lee Todd, deceased, is ready for closing and the Personal Representative affirmatively states the following to the Court, with accompanying requests made to this Court, to-wit:

a. All income has been properly received and expenses lawfully made,

b. All allowed and approved claims have been paid, or claims have been privately paid without the use of estate funds and there are no creditor’s claims outstanding;

c. All funeral expenses, taxes and costs of the administrator have been paid;

d. That all remaining interests of the Estate should be to all distributees according to the laws of testate succession.

            8. That an Oklahoma estate tax return was not filed with the Oklahoma Tax Commission because the Decedent died on or after January 1, 2010.  The Estate of Sandra Lee Todd was of insufficient size to require the filing of a Federal Estate Tax Return.  All other federal, state, county, school and municipal taxes, including income taxes, have been paid, if owed, or are otherwise provided for.

            9. That due and lawful notice to the creditors of Sandra Lee Todd has been given for the time and in the manner provided by law; that prior to giving the required notice, the Personal Representative made a diligent search and inquiry of the heirs-at-law and other interested parties in an effort to determine the identity and nature of any claim against the Estate of Sandra Lee Todd, that all claims of every kind and character, chargeable to the estate, if any, have been paid in full, satisfied and discharged; and that all other expenses and claims that were not presented are now barred by the statute of limitation in effect under the laws of the State of Oklahoma.

            10. That all purposes of administration have been fully and faithfully fulfilled; that the Personal Representative has performed all acts and duties lawfully required, and the Estate of Sandra Lee Todd is now ready for closing and distribution.

            11. That the Personal Representative has made no personal profit from any increase in the Estate of Sandra Lee Todd.

            12. That the Personal Representative waives the statutory fee.

            13. That under the terms of the admitted last will and codicil all interests in the estate are to pass and be distributed as follows:

NAME / RELATIONSHIP/AGE / ADDRESSES

Sandra Lee Todd Separate, Property Trust dated, February 18, 2003, as amended / Revocable Living Trust / [REDACTED] 

            14. That the Petitioner and Executor herein also serves as the sole Trustee of the Sandra Lee Todd Separate Property Trust dated February 18, 2003, as amended.

            15. That the Executor advises the Probate Court that the Wounded Warrior Project, Inc. would be the beneficiary under the terms of the Sandra Lee Todd Separate Property Trust dated February 18, 2003, as amended, of all headright interests and all cash in the associated IIM account of the Decedent’s Estate BUT FOR the execution by said entity of a Disclaimer of Osage Headright Lifetime Interest by Wounded Warrior Project, Inc. filed in these proceedings on the 24th day of May, 2024 which the Trustee recognizes as having been executed pursuant to the authority of the Oklahoma Disclaimer of Property Law, Title 58 O.S. Section 751, et seq. and which the Trustee accepts as a valid disclaimer of said interests that might otherwise come to be distributed to the Wounded Warrior Project, Inc.

            16. That with the disclaimer and declination of the Wounded Warrior Project, Inc. as to the said headright interests, and on the representations of the Executor of the Decedent’s Estate, said Executor also serving as the Trustee of the Sandra Lee Todd Separate Property Trust dated February 18, 2003 (as amended), and there being no objections, the court finds that the Osage Tribe is the sole, alternate beneficiary and distributee under the terms of the Sandra Lee Todd Separate Property Trust dated February 18, 2003 (as amended) of the said headright interests and related IIM cash..

            17. That as to the Estate of Sandra Lee Todd, deceased, the Final Accounting and Application for Decree Distributing the Estate and Discharging Personal Representative filed herein on the 2nd day of October, 2024, is duly approved and sustained.

            WHEREFORE, PREMISES CONSIDERED, It is therefore Ordered, Adjudged and Decreed by the Court that due and legal notice of the time and place of this hearing on the Final Accounting and Application for Decree Distributing the Estate and Discharging Personal Representative filed herein on the 2nd day of October, 2024 has been given by Mark Dawson, the Personal Representative in the manner, form and for the full time as required by law and the Order of this Court, and the Court so finds, adjudges and decrees.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED by the Court that notice to creditors as required by law was given by the Personal Representative, and that all claims which were not lawfully submitted within the time permitted for the presentation of claims are hereby nonsuited, void and forever barred.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED by the Court that the Final Accounting filed on the 2nd day of October, 2024, is approved without objection.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED by the Court that the Personal Representative should be and is hereby required and directed to distribute and deliver to all distributees, as hereinbefore set forth, their proper distributive share.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED by the Court that this Order Approving Final Accounting and Decree Distributing the Estate and Discharging Personal Representative may by itself be relied upon to pass title to, and vest interests in, all such distributed interests.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the Personal Representative should be entitled to receive his discharge without further hearing or notice upon filing final report to the court verifying that the said headright interests and related cash in the IIM account have been distributed, and all other duties of his administration have been completed, and upon the filing of said final report he shall be automatically discharged and have no further duties or obligations with regard to the Decedent’s estate in all respects.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the unpaid attorney’s fees in the amount of [REDACTED] are hereby approved and ordered paid to be paid out of the estate to Steven L. Holcombe, Attorney at Law, with a report back to the Court by the Personal Representative as to the satisfaction of all said fees and costs prior to discharge.

          IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that reasonable costs in the amount of [REDACTED] [1] should be reimbursed to the Sandra Lee Todd Separate Property Trust dated February 18, 2003 (c/o of Steven L. Holcombe, Attorney at Law) for filing fees, publication costs, and mailing costs incurred in these proceedings which have been fronted and paid, or will be paid, by the said Trust regarding today’s Final Hearing.

            IT IS FURTHER ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the prayed for Order for approving this Application be deemed on the date of its issuance to fully transfer all of the Osage headright interests and associated cash in the IIM account of the Decendent’s Estate to the Osage Tribe.

            DATED this 28th day of October, 2024.

  IT IS ORDERED!

____________________________________

The Honorable Stuart Tate

Judge of the District Court

Prepared By:

Steven L. Holcombe, OBA #4287

Attorney for Petitioner

PO Box 1408                                                             

Pawhuska, OK 74056

[1] In the Final Accounting filed herein on the 2nd day of October, 2024, the Executor represented costs to that date of [REDACTED]. At today’s hearing the Executor, by and through his attorney, has represented additional projected costs of [REDACTED] to cover expenses yet to be incurred or paid by the estate, which the court accepts as reasonable, bringing the total to [REDACTED].