Ohio Code 2107.54 – Contribution – exception
(A) When real or personal property, devised or bequeathed, is taken from the devisee or legatee for the payment of a debt of the testator, the other devisees and legatees shall contribute their respective proportions of the loss to the person from whom the payment was taken so that the loss will fall equally on all the devisees and legatees according to the value of the property received by each of them.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 2107.54
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Bequest: Property gifted by will.
- Devise: To gift property by will.
- Executor: A male person named in a will to carry out the decedent
- Legatee: A beneficiary of a decedent
- Lien: A claim against real or personal property in satisfaction of a debt.
- Mortgage: The written agreement pledging property to a creditor as collateral for a loan.
- Person: includes an individual, corporation, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, and association. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Personal property: All property that is not real property.
- Property: means real and personal property. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Real property: Land, and all immovable fixtures erected on, growing on, or affixed to the land.
- Testator: A male person who leaves a will at death.
If, by making a specific devise or bequest, the testator has exempted a devisee or legatee from liability to contribute to the payment of debts, or if the will makes a different provision for the payment of debts than the one prescribed in this section, the estate shall be applied in conformity with the will.
(B) A devisee or legatee shall not be prejudiced by the fact that the holder of a claim secured by lien on the property devised or bequeathed failed to present the claim to the executor or administrator for allowance within the time allowed by sections 2117.06 and 2117.07 of the Revised Code, and the devisee or legatee shall be restored by right of contribution, exoneration, or subrogation, to the position the devisee or legatee would have occupied if the claim had been presented and allowed for the sum that is justly owing on it.
(C) A devisee of real property that is subject to a mortgage lien that exists on the date of the testator’s death, who does not have a right of exoneration that extends to that lien because of the operation of division (B) of section 2113.52 of the Revised Code, has a duty to contribute under this section to devisees and legatees who are burdened if the claim secured by the lien is presented and allowed pursuant to Chapter 2117. of the Revised Code.
(D) This section does not affect the liability of the whole estate of the testator for the payment of the testator’s debts. This section applies only to the marshaling of the assets as between those who hold or claim under the will.