Court Opinion

ID: 4922912
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2021-09-22 04:13:53.040545+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:56:49.775942
License: Public Domain

¶ 50. The Mississippi wrongful-death statute13
authorizes several categories of persons-including "interested parties" — to file suit. This Court has clearly held that the deceased's heirs under the laws of intestate succession qualify as "interested parties."14 But today, the majority says a devisee under a will is not an "interested party" because (according to the majority) a "will has no legal effect and confers no rights or authority until it is probated." Because the majority is not correct on this point, I concur only in part and in result.
 ¶ 51. There is very little practical difference in the legal status of the heirs under the laws of intestate succession, and those under a will. As a general rule (subject to exceptions15), personal property of a decedent (with or without a will) must pass through an estate before it may be distributed.16 More importantly, this Court has held: "Upon the death of a person his [or her real] property vests immediately in his [or her] heirs, or the devisees or distributees under his will, if one has been made."17 The majority's assertion that a "will has no legal effect and *Page 164 
confers no rights or authority until it is probated" misses this important point, and thus is clearly incorrect.
 ¶ 52. A wrongful-death lawsuit benefits an heir at law and an heir under a will exactly the same. So there is no logical basis for treating them differently, as does the majority. If one qualifies as an "interested party," so should the other. I therefore respectfully dissent in part.
KITCHENS AND CHANDLER, JJ., JOIN THIS OPINION.
13 Miss. Code Ann. § 11-7-13 (Rev. 2004).
14 Burley v. Douglas, 26 So.3d 1013 (Miss. 2009).
15 See e.g. Miss. Code Ann. § 81-5-63 (Rev. 2001) (bank accounts less than $12,500); Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-322 (Supp. 2010) (debts owed or property belonging to estates of less than $50,000); Miss. Code Ann. § 91-7-323
(Rev. 2004) (wages owed to decedent).
16 Long v. McKinney, 897 So.2d 160, 174
(Miss. 2004). Furthermore, "it has been held that heirs may recover in chancery the personalty of a decedent without an administration of the estate, provided there are no creditors." Robert A. Weems, Wills and Administration of Estates inMississippi § 2:52 (2003) (citing Partee v.Kortrecht, 54 Miss. 66, 71, 1876 WL 5134 (1876)). Mississippi Code Section 91-1-27 lays out the chancery procedure for recognition as an heir at law.
17 Beach v. State, 178 Miss. 336, 173 So. 429, 430
(1937); accord In re Estate of McRight, 766 So.2d 48,49 (Miss.Ct.App. 2000) ("whether by intestate death and succession or by last will and testament, a deceased's real property vests immediately at death in his heirs or devisees").