[WSBAPT] creditor claim

[Krista MacLaren]

Hi Folks,

I have a creditor claim scenario I have never contemplated before.  When decedent died, her best friend attempted to handle many of the immediate issues that needed attention before obtaining legal advice.  As part of that, she got an order from the King County Superior Court in Kent to have a safe deposit box opened to check for a will.  No will was found.  Later, she and the family contacted me to assist them in opening a probate, with no mention made of the Kent court action.

I opened probate in the Seattle KCSC and issued notices to creditors, including a credit union with whom the decedent had a credit card.  Credit Union did not file a claim under the Seattle cause number, but they had already filed a claim under the Kent cause number (before I had sent the Notice to Creditors).  I don’t know how they even knew about the Kent cause number.  I only learned of it because I was out of the office and wanted to check the court file, but didn’t have the cause number, so I did a case search online and found two separate cause numbers.  When they received the Notice to Creditors that I sent, they did not file their claim under the Seattle cause number.  They may not have noticed the cause numbers were different and just figured they had already filed their claim.

Now the creditor claim period has passed, and I am wondering whether we must pay them, whether we should not pay them, whether this is a defect that the PR may waive - ?  The estate is quite small and the claim is around $7,000.  The PR just wants to do what is appropriate, and has no special interest in avoiding payment, but does want to protect himself from accusations of wrongdoing.

Thank you for any suggestions!

Krista J. MacLaren
Attorney at Law
Northgate Executive Center II
9725 3rd Ave NE, Suite 600
Seattle, WA 98115
(206) 523-6116
kjm.inc at me.com