Filed: Apr. 13, 2012
Latest Update: Apr. 13, 2012
Summary: WOODALL, Justice. The petition for the writ of certiorari is denied. In denying the petition for the writ of certiorari, this Court does not wish to be understood as approving all the language, reasons, or statements of law in the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion. Horsley v. Horsley, 291 Ala. 782, 280 So.2d 155 (1973). WRIT DENIED. MALONE, C.J., and MAIN, JJ., concur. BOLIN, J., and MURDOCK, J., concur specially. MURDOCK, Justice (concurring specially). I concur in the denial of Eric D
Summary: WOODALL, Justice. The petition for the writ of certiorari is denied. In denying the petition for the writ of certiorari, this Court does not wish to be understood as approving all the language, reasons, or statements of law in the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion. Horsley v. Horsley, 291 Ala. 782, 280 So.2d 155 (1973). WRIT DENIED. MALONE, C.J., and MAIN, JJ., concur. BOLIN, J., and MURDOCK, J., concur specially. MURDOCK, Justice (concurring specially). I concur in the denial of Eric De..
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WOODALL, Justice.
The petition for the writ of certiorari is denied.
In denying the petition for the writ of certiorari, this Court does not wish to be understood as approving all the language, reasons, or statements of law in the Court of Civil Appeals' opinion. Horsley v. Horsley, 291 Ala. 782, 280 So.2d 155 (1973).
WRIT DENIED.
MALONE, C.J., and MAIN, JJ., concur.
BOLIN, J., and MURDOCK, J., concur specially.
MURDOCK, Justice (concurring specially).
I concur in the denial of Eric DeWayne Taylor's petition for a writ of certiorari to the Court of Civil Appeals in regard to that court's decision in Taylor v. Newman, [Ms. 2100781, October 14, 2011] 93 So.3d 108 (Ala.Civ.App.2011). In particular, I concur with the statement of this Court that the denial of the petition should not be read by the bench and bar as an approval of the analysis offered in Taylor. I write separately to explain some of the more fundamental reasons I agree with that statement.
Facts and Procedural History
Taylor is the son of Jimmy Patrick Newman ("Newman"), deceased. The personal representative of Newman's estate is Newman's brother, Jerry Wayne Newman ("Jerry"). Taylor contends that Taylor and Wendy Marie Newman ("Wendy"), who is Newman's daughter, are Newman's heirs. Based on the facts alleged in Taylor's petition to this Court, Newman's estate consisted of "assets of only $1,076.09." See Ala.Code 1975, § 43-8-1(8) (defining the estate as "the property of the decedent whose affairs are subject to this chapter" of the Probate Code).
Taylor's petition, however, is not concerned with the administration and distribution of the $1,076.09 that constituted Newman's estate. In March 2005, the Mobile Probate Court granted letters of administration for the estate to Jerry. According to the Court of Civil Appeals, "[t]he probate court included in the letters of administration a provision restricting Jerry from settling any litigation on behalf of the estate without the approval of the probate court; the estate had filed a wrongful-death action against the other party involved in the automobile accident in which [Newman] had been killed." 93 So.3d at 110. Taylor's petition is concerned with his failed attempt to persuade the Mobile Probate Court to undo orders issued by that court concerning the distribution of proceeds from the settlement of a wrongful-death claim that arose out of Newman's death and that was filed pursuant to § 6-5-410, Ala.Code 1975.
Discussion
Notwithstanding the foregoing procedural history, an estate cannot file a wrongful-death action. See Ala.Code 1975, § 6-5-410; Downtown Nursing Home, Inc. v. Pool, 375 So.2d 465, 466 (Ala.1979) (noting that the "right" to file a wrongful-death action is "vested in the personal representative alone").1 As a corollary, the proceeds from the settlement of the wrongful-death claim that arose out of Newman's death are not a part of Newman's estate. See, e.g., Steele v. Steele, 623 So.2d 1140, 1141 (Ala.1993) ("[D]amages awarded pursuant to [§ 6-5-410] ... are not part of the decedent's estate.").
This Court has long recognized that,
"[i]n prosecuting [wrongful-death] actions, the personal representative does not act strictly in his capacity as administrator of the estate of his decedent, because he is not proceeding to reduce to possession the estate of his decedent, but rather he is asserting a right arising after his death, and because the damages recovered are not subject to the payment of the debts or liabilities of the decedent. He acts rather as an agent of legislative appointment for the effectuation of the legislative policy...."
Hatas v. Partin, 278 Ala. 65, 68, 175 So.2d 759, 761 (1965); see also Steele, 623 So.2d at 1141 (noting that the "personal representative... act[s] as agent by legislative appointment for the effectuation of a legislative policy of the prevention of homicides through the deterrent value of the infliction of punitive damages"). "Upon a recovery, [the personal representative] acts as a quasi trustee for those who are entitled thereto under the statute of distribution. Such damages are not subject to administration and do not become part of the deceased's estate." United States Fid. & Guar. Co. v. Birmingham Oxygen Serv., Inc., 290 Ala. 149, 155, 274 So.2d 615, 621 (1973). Indeed, commenting on an earlier version of Alabama's wrongful-death statute, this Court noted that the legislature has
"impose[d] upon the administrator a trust separate and distinct from the administration. The trust is not for the benefit of the estate, but of the widow, children, or next of kin of the deceased. The administrator fills this trust, but he does not do it in the capacity of representative of the estate. It is altogether distinct from the administration, notwithstanding it is filled by the administrator."
Hicks v. Barrett, 40 Ala. 291, 293 (1866) (discussing Ala.Code of 1852, § 1938).
Taylor's petition concerns the Mobile Probate Court's denial of his postjudgment motion to set aside that court's orders purportedly (1) approving Jerry's settlement of the wrongful-death claim and (2) approving the distribution of the proceeds from the settlement of the wrongful-death claim as part of the "final settlement" of Newman's estate. The settlement proceeds, less attorney fees, were distributed to Wendy. The facts stated in the opinion of the Court of Civil Appeals would support the notion that Wendy was the only heir of Newman's known to the probate court, to Wendy, and to Jerry at the time of the final settlement of Newman's estate in May 2006.
In 2010, after Taylor discovered that Wendy had received a substantial monetary settlement from the wrongful-death action, he initiated a paternity proceeding to establish that he was Newman's son. A few days after Taylor received a judgment of paternity in January 2011, Taylor filed the aforementioned motion to set aside the probate court's orders concerning the approval of the wrongful-death-claim settlement and the final settlement of Newman's estate. Taylor's post-judgment motion was filed pursuant to Rule 60(b), Ala. R. Civ. P.2 The probate court denied the motion, and the Court of Civil Appeals affirmed that denial. See Taylor, 93 So.3d at 113.3
Most of Taylor's arguments in his petition to this Court, and much of the Court of Civil Appeals' discussion in Taylor, relate to statutes applicable to the administration of an estate. Those statutes, however, are inapposite because the proceeds from a wrongful-death claim are not part of the decedent's estate, see Steele, supra; thus, they are not included within the estate administration.
For example, the Court of Civil Appeals could not properly have applied the limitations period from Ala.Code 1975, § 43-8-5. Taylor, 93 So.3d at 114. Section 43-8-5 applies to proceedings "under this chapter," i.e., chapter 8 of the Probate Code, which concerns certain matters relating to the administration of estates, not the settlement of, or the distribution of proceeds from, a wrongful-death action.4
Similarly, the Court of Civil Appeals' discussion of §§ 43-2-60 and -61, Ala. Code 1975, which concern notice to creditors of the decedent, not to heirs, is misdirected. Indeed, if the Court of Civil Appeals application of those sections were correct, an heir would be "barred" from receiving his or her inheritance when he or she failed to file a claim with the probate court. See Ala.Code 1975, § 43-2-60 (notice must inform the claimant that failure to present a claim "within the time allowed by law" will result in the claim being "barred"). In addition, it may be noted that such a conclusion obviously cannot be reconciled with the statute governing automatic devolution of title to a decedent's property, see Ala.Code 1975, § 43-2-830.5
Further, I note that Taylor may indeed have cause to have the orders at issue set aside, though not for any grounds he raised in his petition to this Court or in his Rule 60(b) motion.6 Rule 60(b)(4), Ala. R.App. P., authorizes a trial court to set aside a judgment or order where it lacked subject-matter jurisdiction. In pertinent part, § 12-13-1, Ala.Code 1975, provides:
"(b) The probate court shall have original and general jurisdiction over the following matters:
". . . .
"(3) All controversies in relation to the right of executorship or of administration.
"(4) The settlement of accounts of executors and administrators.
"(5) The sale and disposition of the real and personal property belonging to and the distribution of intestate's estates."
The foregoing categories of jurisdiction concern matters relating to the administration of a decedent's estate; they do not authorize the probate court to entertain a motion concerning the approval of the settlement of a wrongful-death claim by a personal representative or to enter an order concerning the distribution of the proceeds from a settlement in such an action as part of the final settlement of the estate. Likewise, matters concerning the personal representative's settlement of a wrongful-death claim and the distribution of the proceeds therefrom do not fall within the Mobile Probate Court's general equity jurisdiction, which is limited to matters of equity "in the administration of the estates," Act No. 91-131, Ala. Acts 1991, and to "any proceeding involving a testamentary or inter vivos trust." Ala.Code 1975, § 19-3B-203. The matters at issue do not concern the administration of Newman's estate, nor do they concern a testamentary trust or an inter vivos trust.
BOLIN, J., concurs.
