[WSBAPT] Is wrongful death claim part of Estate Inventory

[Jennifer L White]

Hi Jeff,
I would leave it off the inventory. While the estate has a technical interest and in the right circumstances can receive a portion of the recovery, the typical scenario bypasses an allocation to the estate itself.
In a settlement, there is often a lump sum received, which is undifferentiated between all of the various claims that were asserted. From there, it is up to the beneficiaries to divvy it up. I can tell you for certain that the PI attorneys who pursued the case will want absolutely nothing with the beneficiaries divvying up that pie. They just want their % earned fee and then buh, bye. They leave that up to the ben’s to agree, mediate, arbitrate or litigate the allocation.
If the case goes to trial, then the jury instructions will have instructions for the jury to allocate who gets what. In that instance, so as not to “confuse” the jury, I have seen PI attorneys request, for example, that the jury puts one lump sum for all “economic” recovery rather than lining out a slot for each beneficiary and the estate. The beneficiaries then have a side deal to figure out the allocation of that lump sum post-trial. That avoids questions from the jury like, “if the widow and kids are getting a line with $$, aren’t they also the estate?” “Why are they getting two sums?”

Anyway, those aviation cases are fun (except for the loss of life part ☹) and it is really interesting to see how they are done. It is a highly specialized area of the law.

Jennifer L. White, Esq.
[cid:image001.jpg at 01D7A4B2.B378C790]

jen at appletreelaw.com<mailto:jen at appletreelaw.com>
PO Box 11037
Yakima, WA 98909
509.225.9813

From: wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com <wsbapt-bounces at lists.wsbarppt.com> On Behalf Of Jeff at bellanddavispllc.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 8, 2021 1:00 PM
To: 'WSBA Probate & Trust Listserv' <wsbapt at lists.wsbarppt.com>
Subject: [WSBAPT] Is wrongful death claim part of Estate Inventory

Listmates:

Decedent died in a plane crash.  Widow has filed actions against plane manufacturer and the company that owned the plane.  Are the values of these claims included in the probate inventory?  At first thought, I think no as they are not an asset of the decedent.  Have others dealt with this?

Jeff Davis

W. Jeff Davis
BELL & DAVIS PLLC
P.O. Box 510
720 E. Washington Street, Suite 105
Sequim WA 98382
Phone: (360) 683.1129
Fax: (360) 683.1258
email: jeff at bellanddavispllc.com<mailto:jeff at bellanddavispllc.com>
www.bellanddavispllc.com<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.bellanddavispllc.com_&d=DwMFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=kDcM-fraYQNOZ1rCslLoMSSRXJQXmQVvRJbE6ymQGho&m=RXtI9La-oShwPL5e5fC0vYlY1yN9raPJT0qgzhUMPRQ&s=KzKjgm8kWqNTdiyeDn1NnihjQaJGjTmDD5MRwmj68rE&e=>

The information contained in this e-mail message may be privileged, confidential, and protected from disclosure. If you are not the intended recipient, any dissemination, distribution, or copying is strictly prohibited. If you think that you have received this e-mail message in error, please e-mail the sender at info at bellanddavispllc.com<mailto:info at bellanddavispllc.com>  or call 360.683.1129.


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210908/9e8951e6/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 987192 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
URL: <http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/wsbapt/attachments/20210908/9e8951e6/image001-0001.jpg>