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Lawsuit after estate is closed
Anonymous3 views2 answers
My husband died with no will. I became executor and handled the estate with much loss to creditors. I am involved in a wrongful death lawsuit and we have to re-open the estate. Will I have to pay those creditors from any monies recieved?
If you have a lawyer handling the wrongful death lawsuit, then he can recommend an estate lawyer. If the creditors made their claims timely, and you now re-open with "after acquired" property, you will have to file another supplemental accounting that could involve paying them.
Of course, you can negotiate lesser amounts.
In a wrongful death lawsuit there are two classes people who may recover. One is the estate. The estate's recovery is for the losses sustained by the decedant...in this case your husband. If the final settlement or judgment makes an award for your husband's losses (such as conscious pain and suffering before he died), those monies will be paid to the estate and available to creditors of the estate.
The other class of recovery are your husband's family members. The personal representative brings the action for them collectively. If there is a recovery, they must agree on the distribution, or the court will decide in a separate proceeding. Monies paid to the family members are not available to your husband's creditors.
Therefore in your case, if appropriate, recovery should be sought only for the family members , and not for your husband's losses before he died.
