Her badge

[navane]

Originally Posted by Eternallyours

My grandmother left us in July, in her will she left my cousins and I all of her jewellery, I'm not an only grandchild but I've always considered my other cousins to be trustworthy, on the day she died her jewellery box went missing (it was stolen by one of my cousins) and I've just now recovered it. She didn't really care much for jewellery but she personally left me her Greek badges (an opal pi phi badge, diamond pi phi badge, an emerald pi phi badge, a sapphire pi pi badge, a ruby pi phi badge and a plethora of Kappa badges. All predating the 1950s.), I'm a Kappa and I have no use for Pi Phi badges (as beautiful as they are) but my cousins think that they have a claim to some of the money since they think that the badges should be sold and we should all take an equal claim to the cash. Since she personally left them to me, I want to send them back to Pi Beta Phi, is this greed on my part?

HOLD ON. What does the will actually say?

If your grandmother left you *and* your cousins "all" of her jewelry, then they may have a claim to the value of the badges. If your grandmother spelled out explicitly which pieces each cousin was to receive - ie "Sarah shall receive the pearl necklace and bracelet set and the ruby pendants", "Amanda will receive the diamond cocktail rings", "Karen shall receive the Greek letter badges", etc. Then I imagine the cousins would not have a claim to the badges.

As unfortunate as it is, if grandmother did not specify the disposition of the badges, you may have to sell them. You cannot deny the other recipients their inheritance simply because you're a Greek and they are not. In this case, I might suggest seeing if the badges can be sold to IHQ or a Pi Beta Phi sister for a fair price.

If the badges were explicitly left to you for your personal use, then you can do whatever you want with them.