(a) For the purposes of Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.06 – Alaska Stat. Chapter 13.36, except as provided in (d) of this section, an individual who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived an event, including the death of another individual, by 120 hours is considered to have predeceased the event.
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Terms Used In Alaska Statutes 13.12.702

  • action: includes any matter or proceeding in a court, civil or criminal. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
  • Beneficiary: A person who is entitled to receive the benefits or proceeds of a will, trust, insurance policy, retirement plan, annuity, or other contract. Source: OCC
  • Common disaster: A sudden and extraordinary misfortune that brings about the simultaneous or near-simultaneous deaths of two or more associated persons, such as husband and wife.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Entitlement: A Federal program or provision of law that requires payments to any person or unit of government that meets the eligibility criteria established by law. Entitlements constitute a binding obligation on the part of the Federal Government, and eligible recipients have legal recourse if the obligation is not fulfilled. Social Security and veterans' compensation and pensions are examples of entitlement programs.
  • Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Obligation: An order placed, contract awarded, service received, or similar transaction during a given period that will require payments during the same or a future period.
  • person: includes a corporation, company, partnership, firm, association, organization, business trust, or society, as well as a natural person. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
  • Probate: Proving a will
  • property: includes real and personal property. See Alaska Statutes 01.10.060
  • Right of survivorship: The ownership rights that result in the acquisition of title to property by reason of having survived other co-owners.
  • Summons: Another word for subpoena used by the criminal justice system.
(b) Except as provided in (d) of this section, for purposes of a provision of a governing instrument that relates to an individual surviving an event, including the death of another individual, an individual who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have survived the event by 120 hours is considered to have predeceased the event.
(c) Except as provided in (d) of this section, if it is not established by clear and convincing evidence that one of two co-owners with right of survivorship survived the other co-owner by 120 hours, one-half of the property passes as if one had survived by 120 hours and one-half as if the other had survived by 120 hours, and if there are more than two co-owners with right of survivorship and it is not established by clear and convincing evidence that at least one of them survived the others by 120 hours, the property passes in the proportion that one bears to the whole number of co-owners. In this subsection, “co-owners with right of survivorship” includes joint tenants, tenants by the entirety, and other co-owners of property or accounts held under circumstances that entitle one or more to the whole of the property or account on the death of the other or others.
(d) Survival by 120 hours is not required if

(1) the governing instrument contains language dealing explicitly with simultaneous deaths or deaths in a common disaster and that language is operable under the facts of the case;
(2) the governing instrument expressly indicates that an individual is not required to survive an event, including the death of another individual, by a specified period or expressly requires the individual to survive the event by a specified period, but survival of the event or the specified period must be established by clear and convincing evidence;
(3) the imposition of a 120-hour requirement of survival would cause a nonvested property interest or a power of appointment to fail to qualify for validity under Alaska Stat. § 34.27.051 or 34.27.100 or to become invalid under Alaska Stat. § 34.27.051 or 34.27.100, but survival must be established by clear and convincing evidence; or
(4) the application of a 120-hour requirement of survival to multiple governing instruments would result in an unintended failure or duplication of a disposition, but survival must be established by clear and convincing evidence.
(e) A payor or other third party is not liable for having made a payment or transferred an item of property or other benefit to a beneficiary designated in a governing instrument who, under this section, is not entitled to the payment or item of property, or for having taken other action in good faith reliance on the beneficiary’s apparent entitlement under the terms of the governing instrument, before the payor or other third party receives written notice of a claimed lack of entitlement under this section. A payor or other third party is liable for a payment made or other action taken after the payor or other third party receives written notice of a claimed lack of entitlement under this section.
(f) Written notice of a claimed lack of entitlement under this section shall be mailed to the payor’s or other third party’s main office or home by registered or certified mail, return receipt requested, or served upon the payor or other third party in the same manner as a summons in a civil action. Upon receipt of written notice of a claimed lack of entitlement under this section, a payor or other third party may pay any amount owed or transfer or deposit an item of property held by it to or with the court having jurisdiction of the probate proceedings relating to the decedent‘s estate, or if proceedings have not been commenced, to or with the court in the judicial district of the decedent’s residence. The court shall hold the funds or item of property and, upon the court’s determination under this section, shall order disbursement in accordance with the determination. Payments, transfers, or deposits made to or with the court discharge the payor or other third party from all claims for the value of amounts paid to or items of property transferred to or deposited with the court.
(g) A person who purchases property for value and without notice, or who receives a payment or other item of property in partial or full satisfaction of a legally enforceable obligation, is not obligated under this section to return the payment, item of property, or benefit or liable under this section for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit. But a person who, not for value, receives a payment, item of property, or other benefit to which the person is not entitled under this section is obligated to return the payment, item of property, or benefit, or is personally liable for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit, to the person who is entitled to it under this section.
(h) If this section or a part of this section is preempted by federal law with respect to a payment, an item of property, or other benefit covered by this section, a person who, not for value, receives the payment, item of property, or benefit to which the person is not entitled under this section is obligated to return the payment, item of property, or benefit, or is personally liable for the amount of the payment or the value of the item of property or benefit, to the person who would have been entitled to it if this section or part of this section were not preempted.
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