Saturday, June 13, 2015

A "will contest" when a person dies intestate, i.e. without a will?


Can you have a will contest when a person dies intestate, i.e. without a will? -- Apparently so, according to the Texas Supreme Court's press release issued upon granting the Attorney General's emergency request for mandamus relief and stay orders in the two most recent same-sex marriage cases from Travis County.
  
A WILL CONTEST WITHOUT A WILL 


Perhaps a will contest without a will only occurs under exceptional circumstances: such as when the deceased was involved in a same-sex relationship and when the relatives of the deceased and her same-sex partner both seek to inherit under the intestacy laws, and seek determination of heirship for that purpose. Extra-ordinary circumstance may make for terminological confusion.   
 
Or perhaps the perceived exigency of having to quash the posthumous claim of a common-law marriage of the gay kind was so pressing that there was no time to actually look at the pleadings. The promptness of the stay order, and the announcement on the court's website, suggest as much. 

HEIRSHIP DEFINED
(TEXAS ESTATES CODE)


DETERMINATION OF HEIRSHIP 


INTESTACY DEFINED


WILL CONTEST DEFINED