In my previous blog regarding lost wills, I discussed a client whose husband’s original will was lost. One discerning reader asked what happened to the client—wouldn’t she inherit everything from her husband anyway? In that case, I wish it had been so. Unfortunately for the client, that was not the case, even though it had been her husband’s intention.
Since the later will could not be offered for probate, we had to go back to his previous will, which was made before his marriage and left everything to his siblings. All was not lost, however. Where a person marries after making a will and his spouse survives him, Nevada law provides that the will is “revoked as to the spouse,” provided that the deceased spouse did not make provision for the surviving spouse by marriage contract or otherwise make it clear in the will that he intentionally omitted her. The technical term for the inadvertently omitted spouse is a “pretermitted spouse”, from the verb “pretermit” which means to leave undone or to neglect. The law also provides for pretermitted children, i.e., children born after the deceased makes his or her last will.
The term “revoked as to the spouse” does not mean that the wife received all of the deceased’s property. The rule about a pretermitted spouse has to be read together with Nevada’s laws regarding persons who die without wills. In my client’s case, her husband owned the property in question before their marriage; it was his separate property. Since he died without surviving parents or children, one half of his separate property was allocated to her as his pretermitted spouse, and the other one half was allocated as provided in the will he made before their marriage.
That was not the end of the story. We contacted the relatives, explained the situation to them and requested that they disclaim their interest to our client, since that was her husband’s intent per his later, lost will. One of the deceased’s siblings was willing to do so. The rest refused; they thought they were going to get a big windfall. Since our client had maintained the property for twenty years, paid all taxes and maintenance, and born all losses, we obtained court approval to shift their share of the proceeds of the sale of the property to her in compensation for her labor and out of pocket costs. All’s well that ends well, I suppose; but the loss of the husband’s true last will and testament caused a huge legal mess that could have been avoided if the original had been maintained.
If you have a question about your rights under a will as a pretermitted spouse or child, contact a qualified probate attorney.
Nevada Estate Planning and Probate 