An executor has a fiduciary responsibility to the estate to get fair market value for any liquidated properties. She could be liable to the other heirs if she conspired to sell it under value.
Wait, rebeccasrevenge, what has happened to the house since your mother’s departure - did you legally transfer it to yourself? Have you been living there? Renting it out? Do you pay the taxes on it?
I haven’t dealt with estates, so I don’t know if those questions will factor into the legal fight you’re picking. Hopefully someone else here will chime in. As a non-expert, I would be concerned that you haven’t acted legally. For example, I can’t see any good coming if you transferred ownership of the house to yourself and didn’t compensate your siblings for five years.
Legal up and don’t be a dick. Talk to your lawyer, find out what your sister is legally obligated to receive and give it to her. Anything else is going to cost you more than its worth. Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face.
As others have said, consult an attorney. If your mom died without a will (and does not have a surviving spouse), California law says the estate is divided equally between the children.
Delaying costs you money, and there’s probably not any way to legally screw your sister out of claiming her share.
If she has an attorney, she’s already ahead of you. You ought to spend less time thinking about how to screw her and more time thinking about how to protect your own interests. I think you have misunderestimated the direction in which the screwing is about to occur.
Moved to IMHO from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
It also means the court will take a very dim view of any subsequent efforts to delay or frustrate the ordered partition.
Indeed, I believe our own Stoid once had very similar thoughts when she also was on the receiving end of a California summary judgment order commanding partition of real property. Does anyone happen to know how that worked out for her?
Does anyone here think a lawyer could help?
hh
Your mom’s gone. She’s not coming back to haunt you or otherwise.
You could sink everything you have into fighting the judgment tooth and nail, and probably the best you’ll end up with is no financial means and the grating bitterness that somewhere, somehow, your sister might be happy.
Seriously, do you not understand that the world is filled with rainbows and meerkats, trips to Disneyland, perfectly salted and buttered popcorn, sailboats, dangly earrings, men with penises (at the standard 1:1 ratio), dewy green grass you can draw patterns in by running around barefoot, karaoke nights where people cheer you on for badly singing “I Will Survive”, DVD collections of The Muppet Show, lamp posts people have knitted cozies for, and jokes you haven’t heard that will make your sides ache because you’ll laugh so hard?
Why on earth shovel this kind of misery into your own life just for the chance some will spill over into your sister’s? Did you know that she’s not required to feel miserable just because you want her to?
For heaven’s sake, woman, take care of yourself and go live a happy life. I’ve even heard it said that it’s the best revenge.
My very bestest friend since we were six is in a similar situation, I’ll give you the same advice I gave her:
Sell and get on with your life.
Or, what **phouka **said +1
This. Your mother never made a will; she is as much to “blame” for this mess as your sister (and yes, what about the third sibling?).
The best thing you can do for yourself is cut your losses now, run like hell, and have the bliss if never having to have any contact with her ever again.
I won’t judge whether you should or shouldn’t do it since I just don’t have enough information, but if you’re living in the house, you could make it harder to sell maybe.
Tell prospective buyers that the house is haunted by your deceased mother. 
I couldn’t agree more with that delightfully written post.
One of my friends is involved in the most horrific who-gets-the-property/money legal debacles that I have ever seen with an ex-husband. It is consuming her life, making her miserable, anxious, and unable to concentrate. This has been going on for forever - five years, maybe? - and neither side will let go. Both of them have have had gruesome health problems (breast cancer for her, a stroke for him), leaving the other in the position of hoping the ex will DIE so that the legal battles will end and they will get everything.
It’s an ugly way to live. You don’t want to go there.
You want to get back at your sister?
Live life and live it well. Honor your mother by living gracefully. Don’t let her memory become tangled up in a few bucks.
Based on the username/thread combo, I don’t think “just living well” is on the table here.
Rebeccasrevenge, you’re being an exceptionally fooiish person if you try and play games with probate. Any money you spend to delay they process is going to come jointly out of your funds as well, and if she can prove you’re being obstructionist to the court you could be in for serious trouble. If your mother made no legal provision to exclude your sister suck it up and move on.
Although I don’t recommend it, if you don’t put your sister in legal heck with lawyers and courts, then a way to punish her a lot is thru illegal acts. Certainly doing this can boomerang and make things much worse for you.
Another way that might bring pain to your sister is publicize her wickedness to all her friends, family, and colleagues.
My recommendation is that you find inner peace and put your sister out of your mind as much as possible and live well.
I have nothing helpful to add. Sorry.
I was lured to this thread, for this is what I saw listed as the last post in IMHO on the SDMB main page:
How can I screw my sister…
by **Stinky Pete
**
How could I not click this thread?
The judge has spoken. As others have also said, trying to play games with that selling well under market price, being deliberately obstructionist, or even asking for excessive delays, will only piss off the judge. Odds are he’s already mildly pissed off.
The only other possibility is that the estate has no connection with California and so sister should have sued where the house, ma, and you were/are.
Handsomeharry had a clever and original suggestion - see if a lawyer will help.
The last few posts are good - they give the same advice I would give to any six-year-old being harrassed by a classmate: “If you yell and scream and basically let her know she’s annoying you, she’ll keep doing it just to enjoy watching you. Pretend you don’t care and the hassle will stop.” So stop defining yourself and this decade by how much you can win what the court has told you is essentially a losing battle.
PS. If you even try to lowball the sale of the house, or delay proceedings - your lawyer (if you eventually get one) cannot divulge what you say to him, it’s privileged. But real estate agents, secretaries, etc. can be compelled to repeat in court whether you told them “sell as low as possible” or “take as long as possible to settle this paperwork.” The number one rule in any act of revenge is “keep your F^%$ mouth shut.” (This probably includes postings on chat sites that contain fairly precise identifying details like years since death and estate items under dispute, court proceedings, number of siblings, etc.)
Point of order: Can one person constitute a conspiracy?
Why did you take care of your mother all those years? For the money? For the property? Or because you loved her?
If it’s for the latter, then honor her memory by accepting the judge’s ruling and splitting the proceeds equally with your sisters. If your mom wanted to exclude your sisters from her estate, she could have easily done so. She chose not to. C’est la vie.
It happens in many, many families that the sibling who happens to lives nearest to an elderly parent takes on the brunt of caring for him/her. Rarely is care split evenly. It so happens that you, by your own free will, took on the responsibility. Hopefully this means that you were able to live rent free for the last five years or so while you took care of her. If so, that was your compensation. If not, then check with your lawyer to see if you can be compensated for any of that after the fact.
Anger is a very motivating emotion. Unfortunately, the law is not on your side. The only thing that you will accomplish with delaying or screwing over your sister is to harm yourself. Don’t think for one second that revenge will make you feel any better. You’ll still be angry and bitter, just poorer.
P.S. Sorry that you lost your mom.
Besides, if daddy dearest not her is paying for her lawyer, you’re not even disturbing her by racking up the legal fees. She’s just enjoying watching you squirm when there’s no way out. (Must have been a fun household growing up…)
Regardless whether ma wanted to give her a piece of the estate or not, her wishes DO NOT COUNT UNLESS WRITTEN DOWN. The amateur lawyer in me wants to point out according to you that ma did not actually say to not give her a portion - just that once you give sis a dime, she’ll haunt you. Even if your mother repeated this to a dozen people forcefully, without a written will I bet there’s nothing you can do. (Hint - ask a lawyer).