[WSBAPT] Suing a deceased person

Tue Apr 20 14:53:47 PDT 2021

You don't actually sue the deceased person but the person's Administrator/PR of his estate.
Here are my answers to your questions:

Three questions:

  1.  How would you name the deceased person as a party?  Simply "<party>, deceased," or "the heirs of <party>, deceased," or something else?  You name the Administrator/PR.  If there isn't one, you or someone opens the estate and appoints a neutral person to be the PR/Administrator.  I serve as a professional PR in many estates so if you want to talk about procedure, send me an email.  Search the court's records online to see if a probate has been opened.
  2.  What diligence do you believe I should be doing to ascertain the status of the beneficiary's estate?  The Administrator appointed should handle this and locate any beneficiaries.
  3.  When I publish the summons, should I say anything in particular with regard to this deceased party?  You have to name the proper party who is the PR/Administrator.  You will serve the summons on the PR/Admin once appointed.  Even if yu file with the name of the decedent, you will have to amend to name the proper party once the Admin/PR is appointed.

Dalynne Singleton
Gourley Law Group
Snohomish Escrow
The Exchange Connection
1002 10th Street / PO Box 1091
Snohomish, WA 98291
360.568.5065
360.568.8092  fax
dalynne at glgmail.com<mailto:dalynne at glgmail.com>
Website:  www.glglawgroup.com

As we face the challenges presented by COVID-19, we have limited staffing in the office to maintain critical functions. Attorney/client meetings will be handled by teleconference or virtually whenever possible.  Be assured that we will continue to advise & support our clients throughout this health emergency.  If you would like to set a telephone conference, please call or email my paralegal theresa at glgmail.com<mailto:theresa at glgmail.com> or dara at glgmail.com<mailto:dara at glgmail.com>.

Please be advised, we are requiring all clients with scheduled appointments coming in, as well as our staff, to be prepared to wear a face mask or adequate covering during all in office interactions.

LICENSED IN WASHINGTON AND OREGON
IMPORTANT/CONFIDENTIAL: This e-mail message (and any attachments accompanying it) may contain confidential information, including information protected by attorney-client privilege. The information is intended only for the use of the intended recipient(s).  Delivery of this message to anyone other than the intended recipient(s) is not intended to waive any privilege or otherwise detract from the confidentiality of the message.  If you are not the intended recipient, or if this message has been addressed to you in error, do not read, disclose, reproduce, distribute, disseminate or otherwise use this transmission, rather, please promptly notify the sender by reply e-mail, and then destroy all copies of the message and its attachments, if any.
[cid:image001.png at 01D735F4.F6CE8160]  [Rated by Super Lawyers] <https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.superlawyers.com_redir-3Fr-3Dhttp-3A__www.superlawyers.com_washington_lawyer_Gary-2DManca_ca059d21-2D1b6e-2D4fca-2Db396-2D80c253f82402.html-26c-3Demail-5FSmall-5Fbadge-26i-3Dca059d21-2D1b6e-2D4fca-2Db396-2D80c253f82402&d=DwMGaQ&c=4VfW4Y7UDKzr0jHM1Tk29w&r=wJy-5dBh2e8cdp8KTDyWsjq7WPfG_HRNpImWO5yfs2A&m=FCmO2jSMMhwxfYb-8WN5A3L-M6GKeJ_8gc6cS3vECHM&s=z2j9M4GPJAL7pempIOe0TGAPkMWrzXJSlY1lyMRDlRg&e=>        [cid:image003.jpg at 01D735F4.F6CE8160]  [No alt text provided for this image]

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Stephen Brandli
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2021 11:06 AM
To: WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Suing a deceased person

Folks,

I have an adverse possession case involving property with a deed of trust.  One of the two beneficiaries of the deed of trust is deceased, but I do not know if there is a current personal representative or who the heirs are.  I have included the standard "all other persons or parties unknown claiming any right, title . . ." language.

Three questions:

  1.  How would you name the deceased person as a party?  Simply "<party>, deceased," or "the heirs of <party>, deceased," or something else?
  2.  What diligence do you believe I should be doing to ascertain the status of the beneficiary's estate?
  3.  When I publish the summons, should I say anything in particular with regard to this deceased party?

Thanks for the help in advance!

                Steve
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210420/4def5bf6/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 5410 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210420/4def5bf6/image001.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 1524 bytes
Desc: image002.png
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210420/4def5bf6/image002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image003.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 32954 bytes
Desc: image003.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210420/4def5bf6/image003.jpg>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image004.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 25680 bytes
Desc: image004.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210420/4def5bf6/image004.jpg>