Washington Code 11.68.011 – Settlement without court intervention — Petition — Conditions — Exceptions
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(1) A personal representative may petition the court for nonintervention powers, whether the decedent died testate or intestate.
Terms Used In Washington Code 11.68.011
- 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.
- Assets: (1) The property comprising the estate of a deceased person, or (2) the property in a trust account.
- Decedent: A deceased person.
- Evidence: Information presented in testimony or in documents that is used to persuade the fact finder (judge or jury) to decide the case for one side or the other.
- Intestate: Dying without leaving a will.
- Issue: means all the lineal descendants of an individual. See Washington Code 11.02.005
- Oath: A promise to tell the truth.
- person: may be construed to include the United States, this state, or any state or territory, or any public or private corporation or limited liability company, as well as an individual. See Washington Code 1.16.080
- Personal representative: includes executor, administrator, special administrator, and conservator or limited conservator and special representative. See Washington Code 11.02.005
- Probate: Proving a will
- Settlement: Parties to a lawsuit resolve their difference without having a trial. Settlements often involve the payment of compensation by one party in satisfaction of the other party's claims.
- Testate: To die leaving a will.
(2) Unless the decedent has specified in the decedent’s will, if any, that the court not grant nonintervention powers to the personal representative, the court shall grant nonintervention powers to a personal representative who petitions for the powers if the court determines that the decedent’s estate is solvent, taking into account probate and nonprobate assets, and that:
(a) The petitioning personal representative was named in the decedent’s probated will as the personal representative;
(b) The decedent died intestate, the petitioning personal representative is the decedent’s surviving spouse or surviving domestic partner, the decedent’s estate is composed of community property only, and the decedent had no issue: (i) Who is living or in gestation on the date of the petition; (ii) whose identity is reasonably ascertainable on the date of the petition; and (iii) who is not also the issue of the petitioning spouse or petitioning domestic partner; or
(c) The personal representative was not a creditor of the decedent at the time of the decedent’s death and the administration and settlement of the decedent’s will or estate with nonintervention powers would be in the best interests of the decedent’s beneficiaries and creditors. However, the administration and settlement of the decedent’s will or estate with nonintervention powers will be presumed to be in the beneficiaries’ and creditors’ best interest until a person entitled to notice under RCW 11.68.041 rebuts that presumption by coming forward with evidence that the grant of nonintervention powers would not be in the beneficiaries’ or creditors’ best interests.
(3) The court may base its findings of facts necessary for the grant of nonintervention powers on: (a) Statements of witnesses appearing before the court; (b) representations contained in a verified petition for nonintervention powers, in an inventory made and returned upon oath into the court, or in an affidavit filed with the court; or (c) other proof submitted to the court.
NOTES:
Application—1997 c 252 §§ 1-73: See note following RCW 11.02.005.