Also known as: fully administered
Written by attorneys — see sources below.
A defensive plea by which an executor or administrator asserts that the estate has been fully administered with no assets remaining to satisfy the plaintiff's demand. The plea requires a showing that all presented claims, administration expenses, and taxes have been paid or otherwise disposed of and that assets have been distributed to entitled persons, with any undischarged claims expressly addressed by distribution subject to liability or other arrangements.
Patricia Patel, personal representative of a decedent's rental property estate, paid all recorded liens and taxes then deeded the buildings to the adult heirs. A tenant's pending habitability lawsuit remained unresolved. Patricia filed the verified closing statement without mentioning the suit or any arrangement for it. The statement fails to close the estate because the undischarged claim was not addressed as required.
Paul Peterson, personal representative of an internet service provider estate, paid administration expenses and known claims then distributed remaining assets. He knew of a customer's outage claim and a landlord's lease claim but neither paid them nor described any accommodation in the verified statement. The statement cannot close the estate because the undischarged claims were ignored.
In January 1993, Lauren Woodward and her husband Warren Woodward, who had been married for approximately three and one-half years and remained childless, learned that Warren had leukemia. The couple arranged for a quantity of Warren's semen to be medically withdrawn and preserved through a process known as sperm banking before he began treatment. Warren underwent an unsuccessful bone marrow transplant and died in October 1993, after which Lauren was appointed administratrix of his estate. In October 1995, Lauren gave birth to twin girls who had been conceived through artificial insemination using Warren's preserved semen. In January 1996, she applied to the Social Security Administration for child's insurance benefits under 42 U.S.C. § 402(d)(1) and mother's benefits under 42 U.S.C. § 402(g)(1). The SSA denied the claims on the ground that the twins were not the husband's children within the meaning of the Act. In February 1996, while pursuing appeals from the SSA denial, Lauren filed a complaint for correction of birth record in the Probate and Family Court against the clerk of the city of Beverly, seeking to add Warren as the father on the twins' birth certificates. In October 1996, a Probate Court judge entered a judgment of paternity based on stipulations of voluntary acknowledgment of parentage and ordered the birth certificates amended to declare Warren the children's father. An administrative law judge conducted a de novo hearing. The judge concluded that the children did not qualify for benefits because they were not entitled to inherit from Warren under Massachusetts intestacy and paternity laws. The SSA appeals council affirmed that decision. Lauren appealed to the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The court certified the question regarding the inheritance rights of posthumously conceived children under Massachusetts intestacy law to the Supreme Judicial Court because the parties agreed that a determination under state law was dispositive and no directly applicable precedent existed.
View caseThe statement must either indicate that the estate was distributed subject to possible liability with the agreement of the distributees or describe in detail other arrangements made to accommodate the outstanding liabilities.
No. The personal representative must also address all presented claims by payment, settlement, or explicit accommodation and must send the statement and an accounting to known unpaid claimants.
The representative may close the estate no earlier than six months after appointment if the claims period has expired, the estate has been fully administered, assets have been distributed, and copies of the statement plus an accounting have been sent to distributees and known unpaid claimants.
The statement does not satisfy statutory prerequisites. The personal representative must send the statement to every claimant of whom the representative is aware whose claim is unpaid or unbarred.
…accrue within one year after the date of death of the deceased" to present his or her claims "at any time before the estate is fully administered." See Flannery v. Flannery , 429 Mass. 55 (1999). Those who take by intestate succession are not "creditors." Rather, they are the heirs who receive what remains of the estate after all…