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Former Commissioner Bob Welsh was one of the most colorful characters to come out of South Miami, a town known for its kaleidoscope of personalities. Welsh was known as “Bicycle Bob”, a nickname he earned from years of delivering political and social issue flyers throughout The City of Pleasant Living. He was elected to the City of South Miami Commission in 2012, served one term as Vice Mayor and was recently re-elected for another term which would have been his last as he had reached his term limit. It was during his time as a city commissioner that Phil Stoddard, a good friend of Welsh, served as Mayor. How friendly were they? Enough to be featured in Welsh’s Will when he died and may possibly receive a healthy sum of $200k or more, “with instructions to raise as much political hell as he can with it.”
Welsh died on February 23, 2021 at age 67 after battling cancer for several years. In Florida, the surviving wife or husband is entitled to receive at least one-third of the decedent’s estate — something probate lawyers have dubbed as “the widow’s share.” Although Bob had been married for 20 years to Marilyn Magill, he left behind a Will that granted the minimum. However, if someone who is married dies without leaving a valid Will, the entirety of his or her estate, after payment of expenses and taxes, if any, goes to the surviving spouse. Perhaps the question now becomes one of validity.
A review of the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser’s website shows that they have a approximate combined market value of over $1.7 million, however recent sales in the area, show that those houses are worth a whole lot more. Of that $1.7 million, $1.1 million has gone to seven other benefactors that aren’t Marylin. One of them includes Phil Stoddard with his piece of the pie. It didn’t take long for discontent to stir and Marylin has retained attorney Thomas Pepe to fight the Will in Probate Court; who also serves as the City Attorney for South Miami.
So, what’s the case here? The Will was witnessed by Elaine Alvarez and Maria Garcia, two City of South Miami employees, and notarized by Nikki Payne, the City Clerk. Given that Bob was near the end of his life when he made this Will in December 2020, the question will inevitably rise as to whether he still had the mental capacity to sign the Will or whether a cocktail of medicines that he was on blurred his cognitive abilities. It also raises the question of whether the Will as the product of undue influence by any of the beneficiaries. Former Mayor Phil Stoddard has already hired his own attorney to fight Marylin’s claims.
I showed the two-page Will to an experienced probate attorney and was told it looked like it was cobbled together on a bad piece of online software. My expert noted that Bob didn’t even have the addresses of the people he left money to, only their phone numbers. That’s a clue that the Will wasn’t written by a lawyer or even a first-year law student. The Will doesn’t state that the witnesses signed in the presence of each other and Bob, so it may be open to attack for failing to follow the requirements of Florida law.
This promises to get ugly. The personal representative of the estate, what in most states would be called an “executor” has filed an objection to a claim for reimbursement of funeral costs made by Marilyn for less than $4,000.
Think about that. In a case where Bicycle Bob Welsh is supposedly giving away $1.1 million to people other than his wife, the personal representative is going to quibble with the widow for less than 4 grand. It would follow that the seven beneficiaries, including Phil Stoddard, have hired their own legal geniuses to protect their piece of Welsh’s pie.
