(a) Except as provided in subdivision (b), a transferee is personally liable to any person having a superior right to the transferred property by testate or intestate succession from the decedent. Except as provided in subdivision (b), the personal liability established by this subdivision shall not exceed the sum of the following, less the amount of any payment made pursuant to Section 13109 or 13109.5:

(1) The fair market value of the transferred property at the time the affidavit or declaration is presented under this chapter, less the amount of any liens and encumbrances on the transferred property at that time.

Terms Used In California Probate Code 13110

  • Affidavit: A written statement of facts confirmed by the oath of the party making it, before a notary or officer having authority to administer oaths.
  • Decedent: A deceased person.
  • Discovery: Lawyers' examination, before trial, of facts and documents in possession of the opponents to help the lawyers prepare for trial.
  • Fair market value: The price at which an asset would change hands in a transaction between a willing, informed buyer and a willing, informed seller.
  • Fraud: Intentional deception resulting in injury to another.
  • Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
  • Person: means an individual, corporation, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, association, or other entity. See California Probate Code 56
  • Property: means anything that may be the subject of ownership and includes both real and personal property and any interest therein. See California Probate Code 62
  • Testate: To die leaving a will.
  • Transferee: means the beneficiary, donee, or other recipient of an interest transferred by an instrument. See California Probate Code 81.5

(2) Income received from the property, if that income would have accrued to the estate had the property not been transferred to the transferee.

(3) If the property has been disposed of, interest on the fair market value of the transferred property from the date of disposition at the rate of 7 percent per annum. For the purposes of this paragraph, “fair market value of the transferred property” means the fair market value of the transferred property, determined as of the time of the disposition of the property, less the amount of any liens and encumbrances on the property at the time the property was paid, delivered, or transferred to the transferee.

(b) In addition to any other liability the transferee has under this section and Sections 13109, 13109.5, 13111, and 13113.5 a person who fraudulently secures the payment, delivery, or transfer of the decedent’s property under this chapter is liable to the person having a superior right to that property by testate or intestate succession from the decedent for three times the fair market value of the property. For the purposes of this subdivision, the “fair market value of the property” is the fair market value of the property paid, delivered, or transferred to the person liable under this subdivision, valued as of the time the person liable under this subdivision presents the affidavit or declaration under this chapter to the holder of the decedent’s property, less any liens and encumbrances on that property at that time.

(c) An action to impose liability under this section is forever barred three years after the affidavit or declaration is presented under this chapter to the holder of the decedent’s property, or three years after the discovery of the fraud, whichever is later. The three-year period specified in this subdivision is not tolled for any reason.

(d) A transferee is not liable under subdivision (a) if the transferee has satisfied the requirements of Section 13110.5 or 13111.

(Amended by Stats. 2022, Ch. 29, Sec. 5. (AB 1716) Effective January 1, 2023.)

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