A Chicago judge has rejected an attempt to invalidate a will that would have left $11 million to an inactive daycare company.
Cook County Judge Daniel O. Tiernan made the ruling Thursday after hearing testimony from two men who said they witnessed the late Joseph Stancak signing the will the year before he died in 2016 at age 87.
Mansoor Afzal and Asad Mahmood said they saw Stancak, a recluse who lived in a modest five-bedroom apartment in Gage Park, sign the will at a New York real estate office in 2015.
Tiernan, in turn, approved the will in December, citing how state law required him to do so. The law requires lawyers to approve a will if witnesses have declared that they are present and of a clear state of mind.
However, the judge believed that the day’s events only paved the way for an inevitable legal battle between Stancak’s 119 living relatives, who were claiming the distribution of the fortune the man had amassed over the course of his life.
Joseph Stancak (not pictured) left behind $11 million when he died in 2016. Without a will, officials decided the fortune would be divided among 119 family members — listed in this roll compiled by attorneys Rodney and Kenneth Piercey
Stancak lived in the Chicago suburb of Gage Park, rarely venturing from this modest home on South Troy Street. A new will was found there last year, which led to a legal battle
“This is intended to be a limited hearing,” the judge said, as the relatives claimed no will had been made at the time of Stancak’s death.
“It does not rule out that a more formal will will be drawn up later.”
The ruling is the latest installment in the nearly eight-year saga surrounding Stancak’s fortune, which was discovered by state officials after Stancak’s death in December 2016.
Stancak, an unattractive man who sometimes walked down the street with his hands behind his back, had $21,000 in two checking accounts at Bank of America, but also had a large fortune in mutual funds and individual securities.
In total, they amounted to more than $11 million, making the fortune the largest unclaimed estate in US history due to the lack of a clear will.
When the treasurer’s office received the reports of these accounts, staff worked feverishly to recover the historical treasures. They managed to locate more than 100 of the man’s distant relatives, including a woman who lives less than five miles west of Stancak’s home but had no idea he existed.
All three were eligible for $100,000 in damages until the will was entered into court last year, setting the stage for a legal battle of epic proportions.
It came in the form of a petition filed in June 2023 asking Tiernan to accept a newly filed will – one that left his entire estate to a New York company, Smart Kids Child Care Inc, and the company’s president, Mahmood.
Cook County Judge Daniel O. Tiernan made the ruling Thursday after hearing testimony from two men accused of forging the newly unearthed document in 2015.
Stancak, an uncouth man who sometimes walked down the street with his hands clasped behind his back, had $21,000 in two Bank of America checking accounts but had a slew of assets in mutual funds or individual securities. All told, they amounted to more than $11 million, making the fortune the largest unclaimed estate in American history.
When the treasurer’s office received reports on these accounts, staff worked frantically to tackle the wealth of historic proportions, tracking down more than 100 of the man’s relatives, such as Anna Madeja (center), who lived less than five miles from Stancak’s house. They were all in line for a $100,000 payout until the will was filed in court last year, paving the way for a fight
On Thursday, Mahmood revealed his ties to the man in question, claiming he knew him through the founder’s original son Afzal.
Afzal testified that his father knew Stancak from when his father lived in Chicago in the late 1980s and 1990s, where they both worked as electricians.
He said his father died the same year as Stancak and that he only heard from Mahmood about Stancak’s death a week ago.
Mahmood told the judge he would have witnessed Stancak signing the will, which was only found in his home late last year, while cleaning for a move. Mahmood claimed that his daycare center is inactive and has never had a physical location.
Afzal said Stancak occasionally visited Afzal’s father in New York after he moved there in 2002, after which he co-founded the daycare.
In 2015, he invited Afzal to be a witness at the signing of his alleged will, Afzal claimed on Thursday.
“Children meant something to him,” Mahmood added.
Tiernan then approved the will to be entered into evidence because the lawyer representing many of the heirs who were in line for the plum payout accused Mahmood of forging the will.
One of the men told the judge how he allegedly witnessed Stancak signing the will that was only discovered in his home late last year while cleaning for a move, while claiming his daycare business is dormant and has never had a physical location. The case is set to continue in August
In a petition filed this month, attorney Ashley Coppola made that argument, citing how Stancak had been in poor health in the years before his death.
She said it is therefore very unlikely that he was planning to move to the other side of the country, as the couple claimed.
Gregory Markwell, the administrator of Stancak’s estate and a lawyer for Mahmood, said he would respond to the petition before the next court hearing, scheduled for the first week of August.
The son of Polish immigrants, Stancak was born in Chicago in 1929. His parents moved there after living in New Jersey for twenty years.
He had six siblings: Mary, Paul, Anna, John, Helen, and Frances. Only Anna and John married, but none of the siblings ever had children.
Stancak’s neighbors in the Chicago suburbs told CBS that the older man was quiet and frugal and was often seen making repairs to the house himself.
He lived on South Troy Street in a modest $325,500 home for sale as a single-family home with five bedrooms, two bathrooms and a mortgage on Redfin.
The only evidence that Stancak had any kind of wealth was his boat, named “Easy,” officials said. Public records show that Stancak renewed his boat license annually before he turned 80.
When he died in 2016, emergency workers found him in a coat in the home’s empty bathtub, with the heat and electricity turned off.
Relatives were found in the US and Europe, receiving an average of about $60,000 after taxes.