Utah Code 75-3-703. General duties — Relation and liability to persons interested in estate — Standing to sue
Current as of: 2024 | Check for updates
|
Other versions
(1) A personal representative is a fiduciary who shall observe the standard of care applicable to trustees as described by Section 75-7-902 . A personal representative is under a duty to settle and distribute the estate of the decedent in accordance with the terms of any probated and effective will and this code and as expeditiously and efficiently as is consistent with the best interests of the estate. He shall use the authority conferred upon him by this code, the terms of the will, if any, and any order in proceedings to which he is party for the best interests of successors to the estate.
Terms Used In Utah Code 75-3-703
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Dependent: A person dependent for support upon another.
- Estate: includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to this title as originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Formal proceedings: means proceedings conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- 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.
- Minor: means a person who is under 18 years old. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Personal representative: includes executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Proceeding: includes action at law and suit in equity. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- State: means a state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, any territory or insular possession subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, or a Native American tribe or band recognized by federal law or formally acknowledged by a state. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Successors: means persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under the decedent's will or this title. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Supervised administration: means the proceedings described in Chapter 3, Part 5, Supervised Administration. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Survive: includes its derivatives, such as "survives" "survived" "survivor" and "surviving. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
- Testacy proceeding: means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy. See Utah Code 75-1-201 v2
(2) A personal representative shall not be surcharged for acts of administration or distribution if the conduct in question was authorized at the time. Subject to other obligations of administration, an informally probated will is authority to administer and distribute the estate according to its terms. An order of appointment of a personal representative, whether issued in informal or formal proceedings, is authority to distribute apparently intestate assets to the heirs of the decedent if, at the time of distribution, the personal representative is not aware of a pending testacy proceeding, a proceeding to vacate an order entered in an earlier testacy proceeding, a formal proceeding questioning his appointment or fitness to continue, or a supervised administration proceeding. Nothing in this section affects the duty of the personal representative to administer and distribute the estate in accordance with the rights of claimants, the surviving spouse, any minor and dependent children, and any pretermitted child of the decedent as described elsewhere in this code.
(3) Except as to proceedings which do not survive the death of the decedent, a personal representative of a decedent domiciled in this state at his death has the same standing to sue and be sued in the courts of this state and courts of any other jurisdiction as his decedent had immediately prior to death.