Joint Account Entitlement
Alfred Ashford and his spouse maintain a joint checking account. Ante mortem Alfred held a one-half beneficial interest under the account agreement. After Alfred dies the surviving spouse receives that share outright.
Also known as: antemortem · ante-mortem · before death
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An adverbial phrase denoting that an act, statement, or condition took place before a person's death. The phrase identifies the temporal boundary separating pre-death events from those arising only after death.
Alfred Ashford and his spouse maintain a joint checking account. Ante mortem Alfred held a one-half beneficial interest under the account agreement. After Alfred dies the surviving spouse receives that share outright.
Alexandra Armstrong's husband deposits sperm before his death. After he dies Alexandra conceives a child. The estate later contests whether the child qualifies as an heir under state intestacy rules.
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Adrian Aguilar's wife undergoes in vitro fertilization after his death. The Social Security Administration denies benefits to the resulting twins. The court examines whether the children are treated as his issue for federal benefit purposes.
Aisha Ahmed and two accomplices rob a store. Ante mortem she waits in the getaway car while the others kill the clerk. Prosecutors later seek the death penalty based on her role in the underlying felony.
The phrase identifies events or harms that occurred before death. In survival actions an estate recovers only for the decedent's pre-death losses such as medical expenses and pain and suffering. Post-death losses belong to a separate wrongful-death claim if available.
Recovery remains limited to harms the injured party actually suffered before death. Punitive damages against a deceased tortfeasor are barred because punishment cannot be imposed on an estate.
Yes. A party's beneficial interest in a multiple-party account is fixed immediately before death and passes to survivors under the governing statute.
…penalty for felony murder simpliciter . At the other end of the spectrum, eight States required a finding of intent to kill before death could be imposed in a felony-murder case and one State required actual participation in the killing. The remaining States authorizing capital punishment for felony murders fell into two…