Major Estate Creditor’s Case from Florida Supreme Court: October 1, 2015 affects all Florida probates, estates and creditors claims

Major Florida Supreme Court case on creditors rights, and filing a statement of claim, or creditor’s claim, to Florida probates & estates.  If you are a creditor, personal representative or executor, or are involved in Florida probates or estate administration, you can read this October 1, 2015 opinion at this link:http://www.floridasupremecourt.org/decisions/2015/sc13-2536.pdf

When Must I File a Claim in a Florida Estate or Probate?

• Do you know the proper way to file an estate claim against someone who owes you money but has died?
• Do you know the time frame that you have to file a claim against someone’s estate?
• In Florida, such a “simple” matter confounded probate litigation law firms from West Palm Beach to Miami. Why?
• Because the “rules” were different in the various appellate districts. Florida probate law was NOT clear cut for estate creditors who want, or should, file an estate claimin a Florida probate.

How Do I File a Claim in a Florida Estate or Probate?

• As of October 1, 2015, the Florida Supreme Court has now laid down the law, and sided with the Palm Beach appeals court (known as Florida’s 4th District Court of Appeal) over other Florida appeals courts.
• In Florida, a known or reasonably ascertainable creditor has two years to file a statement of claim in the estate.
• While that has been the law for some time, there’s a rub.
• That 2 year time frame to file an estate claim in Florida is dead-on, certain.
• If the personal representative, or the so called “executor” of a Florida estate,fails to give actual notice to the known, or reasonably ascertainable creditor, that creditor has 2 years from the date of death to file the claim.
• Even if a notice to creditors was published. In other words, an estate creditor who isknown or reasonably ascertainable, is different than other creditors. Previously, there was a split in Florida’s appellate districts.
• Did a known or reasonably ascertainable creditor have 2 years to file a claim if they did not receive actual notice, or only 3 months from the date of publication of the notice to creditors?
• The short 3 month statute now does not protect the estate, or the probate or the personal representative, of the Florida estate.
• Why was this so bothersome?

What  Are My Rights as a Creditor of a Florida estate or probate?

• Because you had personal representatives of Florida estates NOT giving actual notice to known or reasonably ascertainable creditors, and then letting the 3 month period (after publication of a notice to creditors in a local newspaper that no one monitors, let alone reads) expire.
• If a creditor then came forward after the 3 months, the estate creditor could be barred from filing a claim (either time barred, beyond the 3 months, or because some creditors “improperly” filed a statement of claim instead of filing amotion to file a statement of claim).
• The “prior” law was inconsistent and quite frankly unfair. Due process, and indeed the case which started all of this, Tulsa Prof. Collections Services v. Pope,mandated that known, or “reasonably ascertainable” creditors were required to be given ACTUAL notice that a person who may have owed someone money, haD passed away.
• So, the Florida Supreme Court has ruled in Jones v. Golden, siding with the 4th DCA, and departing from other districts, specifically the Morgenthau and Lubeecases.