Also known as: probate administrations · estate administration · probate
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
The judicial process by which a decedent's probate estate is administered. Assets owned by the decedent at death are collected, creditors' claims are resolved, taxes and expenses are paid, and remaining property is distributed to heirs or devisees under court supervision.
Phoebe Park created a revocable trust holding investment accounts and died leaving unpaid medical bills. Her probate estate held only personal effects insufficient to cover the debts. The probate court ordered the trust assets applied to satisfy the creditors' claims after the estate proved inadequate.
Paige Porter died without a will owning a rural parcel. The probate court entered an order distributing the land to her heirs under the statute of descent and distribution. No deed from Paige was required. The heirs recorded the decree to perfect marketable title.
Penelope Price died intestate survived by an acknowledged but illegitimate daughter. The probate court applied constitutional limits on distinctions between legitimate and illegitimate children and ordered the daughter to share in the estate distribution.
Deta Mona Trimble is the illegitimate daughter of Jessie Trimble and Sherman Gordon. Trimble and Gordon lived together in Chicago with Deta Mona from 1970 until Gordon died in 1974 as the victim of a homicide. On January 2, 1973, the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois, entered a paternity order finding Gordon to be the father of Deta Mona and ordering him to pay fifteen dollars per week for her support. Gordon thereafter supported Deta Mona in accordance with the paternity order and openly acknowledged her as his child. Gordon died intestate at the age of twenty-eight, leaving an estate consisting only of a 1974 Plymouth automobile worth approximately twenty-five hundred dollars. Shortly after Gordon's death, Trimble, as the mother and next friend of Deta Mona, filed a petition for letters of administration, determination of heirship, and declaratory relief in the Probate Division of the Circuit Court of Cook County. That court entered an order determining heirship, identifying as the only heirs of Gordon his father Joseph Gordon, his mother Ethel King, and his brother, two sisters, and a half brother. The Circuit Court excluded Deta Mona on the authority of section twelve of the Illinois Probate Act. The Illinois Supreme Court affirmed the decision of the Circuit Court on the authority of its earlier decision in In re Estate of Karas. The United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction to consider the arguments that section twelve violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by invidiously discriminating on the basis of illegitimacy and sex.
View casePilar Pena's estate published notice of probate but failed to mail actual notice to a known hospital creditor. The probate court held the publication-only notice violated due process and allowed the late claim to proceed against the estate assets.
In November 1978, H. Everett Pope, Jr., was admitted to St. John Medical Center, a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On April 2, 1979, while still at the hospital, he died testate. His wife, appellee JoAnne Pope, initiated probate proceedings in the District Court of Tulsa County. The court entered an order setting a hearing, admitted the will to probate, and named appellee as executrix, issuing letters testamentary to her. Following her appointment, the court ordered appellee to immediately give notice to creditors. Appellee published notice in the Tulsa Daily Legal News for two consecutive weeks beginning July 17, 1979. The notice advised creditors that they must file any claim against the estate within two months of the first publication. Appellant Tulsa Professional Collection Services, Inc., a subsidiary of St. John Medical Center and the assignee of a claim for expenses connected with the decedent's hospital stay, did not file a claim with appellee within the two-month period. In October 1983, appellant filed an Application for Order Compelling Payment of Expenses of Last Illness in the District Court of Tulsa County. The district court denied the application. The Oklahoma Court of Appeals affirmed the district court's judgment. Appellant then sought rehearing, raising a due process challenge to the nonclaim statute's notice provisions for the first time. The Court of Appeals rejected the due process claim on the merits in a supplemental opinion. Appellant sought review in the Supreme Court of Oklahoma, which granted certiorari and affirmed the Court of Appeals' judgment. The United States Supreme Court noted probable jurisdiction and heard the case.
View casePhilip Powell's will was denied probate by the probate court. The state legislature later passed a resolution granting a new hearing on the same will. The probate court conducted the rehearing and admitted the will without treating the legislative act as an invalid ex post facto law.
The grandson Normand Morrison executed his will on August 21, 1779. On March 21, 1793, the Court of Probate for Hartford County disapproved the will and refused to record it. More than eighteen months elapsed from this decree, during which the right of appeal was lost under Connecticut law. There was no law in Connecticut allowing a new hearing before the court of probate except through special legislative action. On the second Thursday of May 1795, the Legislature of Connecticut passed a resolution setting aside the March 1793 decree of the Court of Probate. The resolution granted a new hearing before the same court of probate with liberty of appeal in six months. This resolution was passed after the time for appeal from the original decree had expired. A new hearing occurred on July 27, 1795, resulting in the court of probate approving the will and ordering it recorded. An appeal followed in August 1795 to the Superior Court at Hartford, which affirmed the decree in February 1796. The Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut then reviewed the case and in June 1796 confirmed the judgment of the Superior Court. Calder and his wife asserted a claim to the premises as the heiress of Normand Morrison the physician. Bull and his wife asserted their claim under the will of Normand Morrison the grandson. The matter came before the United States Supreme Court for review of the state court proceedings.
View casePortia Price died leaving disputed claims over household furnishings. The probate court appointed an administrator, inventoried the items, resolved creditor objections, and ordered final distribution after payment of administration expenses.
Howard Mahoney died intestate on May 6, 1961, of gunshot wounds. His wife, Charlotte Mahoney, was tried for the murder of Howard Mahoney in the Addison County Court and was convicted by jury of the crime of manslaughter in March, 1962. She is presently serving a sentence of not less than 12 nor more than 15 years at the Women’s Reformatory in Rutland. Howard Mahoney left no issue, and was survived by his wife and his father and mother. His father, Mark Mahoney, was appointed administrator of his estate which at the present time amounts to $3,885.89. After due notice and hearing, the Probate Court for the District of Franklin entered a judgment order decreeing the residue of the Estate of Howard Mahoney, in equal shares, to the father and mother of the decedent. An appeal from the judgment order and decree has been taken here by the appellant widow. The cause now before us is here on a direct appeal from the Probate Court. Findings of fact were made below from which it appears that the judgment of the probate court decreeing the estate of Howard Mahoney to his parents, rather than to his widow, was based upon a finding of the felonious killing of her husband by Mrs. Mahoney. The Probate Court used the record of the conviction of the appellant for manslaughter for its determination that the appellant had feloniously killed her husband. In Vermont, an indictment for murder can result in a jury conviction on either voluntary or involuntary manslaughter. The legislature has provided the sentences that may be passed upon a person convicted of manslaughter, but provides no definition of that offense, nor any statutory distinction between voluntary and involuntary manslaughter.
View caseAfter the settlor's death, property in a trust revocable at death is subject to the settlor's creditors and estate administration costs to the extent the probate estate is inadequate. The court may order the trust assets applied after determining the probate estate shortfall.
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Title passes by operation of law through intestate succession or by will through devise. The probate court issues an order or decree that transfers title without requiring a deed from the decedent, though a fiduciary may execute a confirmatory deed.
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Publication notice alone is insufficient for known creditors. Due process requires actual notice by mail or equivalent service so that creditors have an opportunity to present claims before the estate is distributed.
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