J-A23033-18 2019 PA Super 249 ESTATE OF ALBERT MIKESKA, IN THE SUPERIOR COURT DECEASED OF PENNSYLVANIA APPEAL OF: KAZIMIRA MIKESKAITE DILKEVICIENE (ESTATE) AND TEOFILE MIKESKAITE STRIGUNIENE, PATERNAL COUSINS; KAZIMIERA ANGLICKIENE (HEIR- REGINA SAMOSKIENE), MATERNAL AUNT; AND PETRAS PUKELIS (HEIRS - REMIGIJA URBIETIENE, GINTAUTAS PUKELIS, PETRAS PUKELIS, & TOMAS PUKELIS), ALEKSANDRA STUMBRIENE, ZIGMUNTAS MATUTIS, MARIJA GANDRAMAVICIENE, FELIKSAS PUKELIS, JUOZAPAS PUKELIS, STASE PUKELYTE GRISKEVICIENE, JONAS PUKELIS, STEPONAS PUKELIS, ANTANAS PUKELIS (ESTATE), JUZEFA ANTANAITYTE JAKUBAUSKIENE, JANINA VAITKEVICIENE (HEIRS - JADVYGA VAITKEVICIENE AND BENEDIKTAS VAITKEVICIUS), EUGENIJA ALISAUSKIENE, VYTAUTAS BAURA (HEIRS - IRENA BAURIENE & EVALDAS BAURA), ALGINA ALIUTE POTRIENE, DANUTE MARIJA PALIOKIENE, IRMA VALAITIENE, ALDONA TIMOFEJEVA, PETRAS PUKELIS, MATERNAL COUSINS, THE LITHUANIAN HEIRS No. 1768 WDA 2017 Appeal from the Order Entered November 1, 2017 In the Court of Common Pleas of Allegheny County Orphans’ Court at No.: 02-15-01826 BEFORE: BOWES, SHOGAN, and STABILE, JJ. OPINION BY STABILE, J.: FILED AUGUST 20, 2019 J-A23033-18 Appellants, twenty-two alleged heirs of the estate of Albert R. Mikeska, deceased, appeal from an order denying their exceptions to the first and final account of the co-administrators of Mikeska’s estate (“estate”). Appellants, who all reside in Lithuania, contend they have an interest in Mikeska’s estate. We affirm. Jonas Mikeska and his brother, Juozapas Mikeska, moved from Lithuania to America when they were young. Jonas married another Lithuanian immigrant, and Albert Mikeska, born in America, was their only son. Juozapas had two children in America, and he died in 1974. On January 8, 2015, Albert died intestate. On March 23, 2015, the Allegheny County Register of Wills granted letters of administration to Juozapas’s two children (and Albert’s first cousins), Delores Mikeska Morante and Stanley Mikeska, to serve as co-administrators of Albert’s estate. The estate filed a certification that the co-administrators were the only persons entitled to share in the estate. Around this time, the estate became the target of heir hunters, individuals or entities who attempt to locate heirs of estates in return for compensation. A reporter retained by Kemp & Associates (“Kemp”), a Utah firm that identifies and locates missing heirs, notified Kemp about Albert’s estate. Kemp contacted Hoerner Bank, a German bank that locates heirs internationally, and the bank retained Rolandas Brazauskas, a Lithuanian attorney and genealogist, to identify any Mikeska heirs in Lithuania. Brazauskas graduated from Vilnius University in 1981 and has worked -2- J-A23033-18 extensively in the genealogical field. He reads, writes and speaks English and has testified as a genealogy expert in four United States cases. Brazauskas provided his research to Hoerner Bank, which provided it to Kemp. Kemp hired Jeffrey McCamic, Esquire, an attorney licensed to practice law in Pennsylvania, to represent Appellants in Allegheny County Orphans’ Court. Brazauskas’s partner, Lithuanian attorney Danute Morkuniene, contracted with Appellants to represent them in documenting and proving their relationship to Albert Mikeska. Each Appellant entered into a fee agreement with “Danute Morkuniere, Attorney at Law of D. Morkuniene and R. Brazauskas Law Office.” Each fee agreement provided: “The client shall pay overall fee of [Kemp firm employees] ...
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