Court Opinion

ID: 9764419
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 03:21:14.560325+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:29:56.354429
License: Public Domain

*125STORCKMAN, Judge
(concurring).
In concurring with the majority opinion, I wish to state and emphasize some additional matters.
Not only does § 537.020 RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S., provide for the survival of actions for personal injuries and wrongful death against the legal representatives of deceased persons, but it also authorizes and requires the probate court to appoint such a representative where the sole purpose is to prosecute a right of action for death or personal injury.
Subsection 2 of § 537.020 provides that: “The existence of the right of action for death or personal injury that does not result in death shall be sufficient to authorize and to require the appointment of a personal representative for the person liable for such death or injury by the probate court upon his death upon the written application of any person interested in such right of action for death or injury.” Emphasis added. Upon proper application of any person interested in the right of action, the issuance of letters of administration is mandatory. The clear legislative intent is to provide an adversary party in an action for the recovery of a judgment which may be satisfied by means other than probate assets, such as the proceeds of liability insurance coverage which, initially at least, do not become a part of the general assets of a decedent’s estate.
Where a casualty is covered by liability insurance, our statutes, § 379.195 and § 379.200, create a right on the part of the injured person which attaches as of the date of the occurrence and payment of the loss established does not depend upon satisfaction by the insured of the final judgment rendered against him. Homan v. Employers Reinsurance Corp., 345 Mo. 650, 136 S.W. 2d 289, 295, 127 A.L.R. 163; Dyche v. Bostian, 361 Mo. 122, 233 S.W.2d 721, 724; State ex rel. Anderson v. Dinwiddie, 359 Mo. 980, 224 S.W.2d 985, 987; Stedem v. Jewish Memorial Hospital Ass’n, 239 Mo. App. 38, 187 S.W.2d 469, 470-471.
Section 473.010 provides for the venue of the administration when the decedent had no domicile in the state and left no property therein. In such case letters may be granted in any county where required in order to protect or secure any legal right. The provisions of § 537.020 are consistent and in harmony with those of § 473.010.
Section 537.020 is also in pari ma-teria with the provisions of the Probate Code relating to the administration of decedent estates. State ex rel. North St. Louis Trust Co. V. Stahlhuth, 362 Mo. 67, 239 S.W.2d 515, 518 [2], These as well as other cognate statutes must be read together and administered and enforced as an entity. So viewed, § 537.020 is complemented by the general provisions of the Probate Code and cannot be said to be deficient with respect to the jurisdictional requirements of which complaint is made. The situation is somewhat analogous to that which authorizes a legal representative to sue for the sole benefit of heirs in a wrongful death action. Section 537.080(4).
As used in § 537.020, “personal representative” is synonymous with legal representative which is a generic term denoting an administrator or executor of a deceased person. As stated in Casey v. Hoover, 197 Mo. 62, 94 S.W. 982, 983, the term personal representative “means only executors and administrators, and therefore it should be so construed, unless there is something in the context that indicates that it was used with a wider meaning.” See also Harris v. Bates, 364 Mo. 1023, 270 S.W.2d 763, 766 [5]; Oates v. Union Pacific Ry. Co., 104 Mo. 514, 16 S.W. 487; Wells v. Bente, 86 Mo.App. 264, 268; and Baldwin’s Century Edition of Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, Personal Representative and Legal Representatives.