Summer 2025 - PAGE 54 - Seems like a good story there?|The Winchester Collector Magazine.|Forum|Winchester Collector

Jeremy P said
On page 54 is the “Coral Gables Trust” full page ad regarding missing firearms from the Quisenberry estate. That is quite the list of firearms….I’d like to hear more of the background on what happened there!
  

I’m willing to bet there are at least two versions of this story and strong feelings involved. Sounds like some exceptional firearms involved to keep it from being just another estate drama. 

Mike

Adding up the approximate dollar value of all those pieces listed in their ad  – that is surely a great deal of money.

Bert H. said

steve004 said
Adding up the approximate dollar value of all those pieces listed in their ad  – that is surely a great deal of money.
  

Those three consecutive serial numbered Iron Frame Henry rifles could easily exceed the 1-million dollar mark.
  

Indeed.  And the Winchester M1876 One of One Hundred, and the two M1873 One of One Thousand would add a fair bit as well.  I see the ad mentioned one of the M1873 One of One Thousand is a two-barrel set.

I suppose this could serve as a reminder to keep our inventory lists up to date. Most of us do trades, sales and acquisitions on a handshake basis and have little or no records of transactions. Not saying this is the case here but I can certainly see the possibility. 

On a brighter note our auction house magazine sponsors have certainly provided us with some excellent eye candy in this issue! If you’re going to the Rock Island Auction later this month I can assure you will see some awesome specimens and meet some of the good people Kevin has working with him to put on the auction. The host hotel is very comfortable with plenty of good places to eat nearby. Going to a big auction provides valuable insight into this growing segment of our hobby. Looks like lots of interesting auctions coming up. 

Mike

tim tomlinson said
Mike, you are definitely on point with keeping inventories up to date and all.  In my mind the commercial firm is well motivated by avarice as well as most individuals are.  Around here, executors are legally able to charge and receive 15% of the estate for doing the job as executor!  Tim
  

I have some experience as an executor and I can assure you I earned every penny of the customary fees. Almost all beneficiaries were easy to deal with, one actor (not a beneficiary) sued me but eventually learned all I owed him was a good butt whipping for the way he cheated my dad. He declined to collect what I felt I owed him. Estate’s primary attorney was quite relieved, secondary attorney hired for the suit kept getting me and the plaintiff mixed up so it was a pleasure to fire him when plaintiff’s attorney realized she was working for a con man. I have a file labelled “Albatross” in a cabinet around here somewhere with hundreds of pages I hope to never see again. I foreclosed on a second lien against a second con artist, paid off the first lien (in spite of primary lien holder’s efforts) and sold his home for a healthy profit to the estate! I’d say I came out pretty close to even and earned the estate a healthy five figure return for administering a couple of well-deserved smackdowns.

I think the firm seeking to sort this out may indeed be highly motivated. I don’t much care for popcorn these days but I’m pretty sure it will be an interesting show!

Mike

Texas is fortunate to have a modern and fairly humane probate system, although for many families of modest means it can be avoided completely with a little planning. 

My personal opinion has always been it is a poor idea for the family attorney — or any attorney — to serve as an executor. If there is no family member or group of members able to serve, institutional executors (which are expensive, admittedly) are the safer choice.  Most law firms are not equipped to provide the ongoing business and bookkeeping services an executor must provide or contract for.  Serving as counsel to the estate is more seemly and keeps the attorney’s fingers out of the estate, which pleases his or her malpractice carrier no end. 

When I was in school, the case book for our first course in Procedure started with the “fog analogy” of Bleak House, the Charles Dickens masterwork. The case before the Lord High Chancellor was Jarndyce v. Jarndyce, an estate matter so long-running and complex there was not a lawyer in England said to understand all of it.  In the end, the entire estate was found to be penniless; all of it had been consumed by fees of all the lawyers, special masters, receivers, appraisers, and court costs. 

Speaking only for myself, becoming involved in a monied estate with competing beneficiaries was a minefield to be avoided at all costs. Such things are a thankless risk to your hard-earned license and apt to cause arterial damage and sleepless nights.  Give me a case between two angry, honest and litigious Texas “bid’nessmen” – preferably one with crop lands to hunt doves on in September.