You are alive. Someone files a probate action in court saying that you are dead. When you show up alive, some expenses of the probate action have already accrued and some of your money has been spent. Who is responsible? You are says an Illinois Appellate Court.
A man had no contact with his family and friends for more than seven years. His sister, his sole heir, filed a probate action asking that he be declared dead. The probate court ruled that the man was presumed dead. The main asset was a stock account worth about $500,000 that the man had apparently abandoned years before. During the probate, the man was located alive. The attorneys who were representing the sister in the estate asked the court to pay them out of the assets of the man who was not dead. The court did so and the court of appeals upheld that decision. The sister had also spent $100,000 of the funds and had no means to pay them back. The moral of this story is keep in touch with your relatives and friends are you may be charged for a probate action that you don't need. 997 N.E.2d 913.
Copyright by Robert Ray a Texas inheritance attorney.
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