In re Estate of Ellis

              SIXTH DIVISION
March 28, 2008
No. 1-07-1793
In re ESTATE OF GRACE ELLIS, Deceased
(Shriners Hospital for Children,
Petitioner-Appellant
v.
James G. Bauman, Individually and as Executor of the Estate of Grace
Ellis, Deceased,
Respondent-Appellee
(John W. Ellis, Robert E. Ludlow, William E. Ludlow, Kenneth R. Ellis,
Robert K. Ellis, Robert W. Burrill, Sharon Burrill Roark, Kenneth B.
Burrill, Harding E. van Schaack, Suzanne Kirchoff, Beatrice V.S. Bock,
Margaret E. Warkentin, Wendy Ludlow, Elizabeth Hedquist, William
Ellis, and Frances Haswell,
Respondents)).
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Appeal from
the Circuit Court
of Cook County
03 P 08067
Honorable
James W. Kennedy,
Judge Presiding
PRESIDING JUSTICE McBRIDE delivered the opinion of the court:
Shriners Hospitals for Children (Shriners) appeals from a circuit court order dismissing
with prejudice its “Petition to Contest Will and for Other Relief.” The issue on appeal is whether
the six month period set out in section 8-1 of the Probate Act of 1975 applies to a claim for
tortious interference with an inheritance expectancy. 755 ILCS 5/8-1 (West 2004).
Decedent Grace Ellis, of Skokie, Illinois, was an only child who never married or had
children. When Ellis died in 2003 at the age of 86, she left a multimillion dollar estate. She
executed a will in 1964 designating her elderly parents as the primary beneficiaries of her estate
and her descendants and petitioner Shriners as the contingent beneficiaries. In 1999,