Archive for the ‘Foreign Wills’ Category

Property Located in Mississippi Must be Probated in Mississippi

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

If you are the executor of an estate which possesses property situated in Mississippi, you must probate that will in Mississippi.

Mississippi law is clear that property situated in Mississippi descends according to Mississippi law, regardless of where the decedent resided or was domiciled. This is true whether the property is real or personal, and whether the estate is testate or intestate.

See Mississippi Code Annotated, Section 91-1-1 (Rev. 2004); Estate of High v. Cobb et al. No. 2008-CA-00799-COA.

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Probating a Lost Foreign Will

Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

The Mississippi Court of Appeals recently found that Section 91-7-33 Miss. Code Ann. does not bar the initial proving of a lost foreign will in Mississippi where the will disposes of property in Mississippi. See In the Matter of the Estate of Artis High, Deceased: Arbella High Watt v. Gracie Cobb, Joe High and David High No. 2008-CA-00799-COA.

The Court of Appeals reversed a Chancery Court decision which held that where the testator was domiciled in another state, and the will was a lost will, the will could not be probated in Mississippi until it was first probated in the state of domicile.

The Court of Appeals emphasized that part of Section 91-7-33 which provides that the original “may be proven,” and aptly pointed out that the statute does not include mandatory language such as the word “must.”

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