30-2209. General definitions.

Subject to additional definitions contained in the subsequent articles which are applicable to specific articles or parts, and unless the context otherwise requires, in the Nebraska Probate Code:

(1) Application means a written request to the registrar for an order of informal probate or appointment under part 3 of Article 24.

(2) Beneficiary, as it relates to trust beneficiaries, includes a person who has any present or future interest, vested or contingent, and also includes the owner of an interest by assignment or other transfer, and as it relates to a charitable trust includes any person entitled to enforce the trust.

(3) Child includes any individual entitled to take as a child under the code by intestate succession from the parent whose relationship is involved and excludes any person who is only a stepchild, a foster child, or a grandchild or any more remote descendant.

(4) Claim, in respect to estates of decedents and protected persons, includes liabilities of the decedent or protected person whether arising in contract, in tort or otherwise, and liabilities of the estate which arise at or after the death of the decedent or after the appointment of a conservator, including funeral expenses and expenses of administration. The term does not include estate or inheritance taxes, demands or disputes regarding title of a decedent or protected person to specific assets alleged to be included in the estate.

(5) Court means the court or branch having jurisdiction in matters relating to the affairs of decedents. This court in this state is known as county court or, for purposes of guardianship of a juvenile over which a separate juvenile court already has jurisdiction, the county court or separate juvenile court.

(6) Conservator means a person who is appointed by a court to manage the estate of a protected person.

(7) Devise, when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of real or personal property and, when used as a verb, means to dispose of real or personal property by will.

(8) Devisee means any person designated in a will to receive a devise. In the case of a devise to an existing trust or trustee, or to a trustee or trust described by will, the trust or trustee is the devisee and the beneficiaries are not devisees.

(9) Disability means cause for a protective order as described by section 30-2630.

(10) Disinterested witness to a will means any individual who acts as a witness to a will and is not an interested witness to such will.

(11) Distributee means any person who has received property of a decedent from his or her personal representative other than as a creditor or purchaser. A testamentary trustee is a distributee only to the extent of distributed assets or increment thereto remaining in his or her hands. A beneficiary of a testamentary trust to whom the trustee has distributed property received from a personal representative is a distributee of the personal representative. For purposes of this provision, testamentary trustee includes a trustee to whom assets are transferred by will, to the extent of the devised assets.

(12) Estate includes the property of the decedent, trust, or other person whose affairs are subject to the Nebraska Probate Code as originally constituted and as it exists from time to time during administration.

(13) Exempt property means that property of a decedent's estate which is described in section 30-2323.

(14) Fiduciary includes personal representative, guardian, conservator, and trustee.

(15) Foreign personal representative means a personal representative of another jurisdiction.

(16) Formal proceedings mean those conducted before a judge with notice to interested persons.

(17) Guardian means a person who has qualified as a guardian of a minor or incapacitated person pursuant to testamentary or court appointment, but excludes one who is merely a guardian ad litem.

(18) Heirs mean those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the property of a decedent.

(19) Incapacitated person is as defined in section 30-2601.

(20) Informal proceedings mean those conducted without notice to interested persons by an officer of the court acting as a registrar for probate of a will or appointment of a personal representative.

(21) Except for purposes of article 26 of the Nebraska Probate Code, interested person includes heirs, devisees, children, spouses, creditors, beneficiaries, and any others having a property right in or claim against a trust estate or the estate of a decedent, ward, or protected person which may be affected by the proceeding. It also includes persons having priority for appointment as personal representative, and other fiduciaries representing interested persons. The meaning as it relates to particular persons may vary from time to time and must be determined according to the particular purposes of, and matter involved in, any proceeding.

(22) Interested witness to a will means any individual who acts as a witness to a will at the date of its execution and who is or would be entitled to receive any property thereunder if the testator then died under the circumstances existing at the date of its execution, but does not include any individual, merely because of such nomination, who acts as a witness to a will by which he or she is nominated as personal representative, conservator, guardian, or trustee.

(23) Issue of a person means all his or her lineal descendants of all generations, with the relationship of parent and child at each generation being determined by the definitions of child and parent contained in the Nebraska Probate Code.

(24) Lease includes an oil, gas, or other mineral lease.

(25) Letters include letters testamentary, letters of guardianship, letters of administration, and letters of conservatorship.

(26) Minor means an individual under nineteen years of age, but in case any person marries under the age of nineteen years his or her minority ends.

(27) Mortgage means any conveyance, agreement, or arrangement in which property is used as security.

(28) Nonresident decedent means a decedent who was domiciled in another jurisdiction at the time of his or her death.

(29) Notice means compliance with the requirements of notice pursuant to subdivisions (a)(1) and (a)(2) of section 30-2220.

(30) Organization includes a corporation, government, or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, limited liability company, or association, two or more persons having a joint or common interest, or any other legal entity.

(31) Parent includes any person entitled to take, or who would be entitled to take if the child died without a will, as a parent under the Nebraska Probate Code, by intestate succession from the child whose relationship is in question and excludes any person who is only a stepparent, foster parent, or grandparent.

(32) Person means an individual, a corporation, an organization, a limited liability company, or other legal entity.

(33) Personal representative includes executor, administrator, successor personal representative, special administrator, and persons who perform substantially the same function under the law governing their status.

(34) Petition means a written request to the court for an order after notice.

(35) Proceeding includes action at law and suit in equity, but does not include a determination of inheritance tax under Chapter 77, article 20, or estate tax apportionment as provided in sections 77-2108 to 77-2112.

(36) Property includes both real and personal property or any interest therein and means anything that may be the subject of ownership.

(37) Protected person is as defined in section 30-2601.

(38) Protective proceeding is as defined in section 30-2601.

(39) Registrar refers to the official of the court designated to perform the functions of registrar as provided in section 30-2216.

(40) Relative or relation of a person means all persons who are related to him or her by blood or legal adoption.

(41) Security includes any note, stock, treasury stock, bond, debenture, evidence of indebtedness, certificate of interest or participation in an oil, gas, or mining title or lease or in payments out of production under such a title or lease, collateral-trust certificate, transferable share, voting-trust certificate or, in general, any interest or instrument commonly known as a security, or any certificate of interest or participation, any temporary or interim certificate, receipt, or certificate of deposit for, or any warrant or right to subscribe to or purchase, any of the foregoing.

(42) Settlement, in reference to a decedent's estate, includes the full process of administration, distribution, and closing.

(43) Special administrator means a personal representative as described by sections 30-2457 to 30-2461.

(44) State includes any state of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, and any territory or possession subject to the legislative authority of the United States.

(45) Successor personal representative means a personal representative, other than a special administrator, who is appointed to succeed a previously appointed personal representative.

(46) Successors mean those persons, other than creditors, who are entitled to property of a decedent under his or her will or the Nebraska Probate Code.

(47) Supervised administration refers to the proceedings described in Article 24, part 5.

(48) Testacy proceeding means a proceeding to establish a will or determine intestacy.

(49) Testator means the maker of a will.

(50) Trust includes any express trust, private or charitable, with additions thereto, wherever and however created. It also includes a trust created or determined by judgment or decree under which the trust is to be administered in the manner of an express trust. Trust excludes other constructive trusts, and it excludes resulting trusts, conservatorships, personal representatives, trust accounts as defined in Article 27, custodial arrangements pursuant to the Nebraska Uniform Transfers to Minors Act, business trusts providing for certificates to be issued to beneficiaries, common trust funds, voting trusts, security arrangements, liquidation trusts, and trusts for the primary purpose of paying debts, dividends, interest, salaries, wages, profits, pensions, or employee benefits of any kind, and any arrangement under which a person is nominee or escrowee for another.

(51) Trustee includes an original, additional, or successor trustee, whether or not appointed or confirmed by court.

(52) Ward is as defined in section 30-2601.

(53) Will means any instrument, including any codicil or other testamentary instrument complying with sections 30-2326 to 30-2338, which disposes of personal or real property, appoints a personal representative, conservator, guardian, or trustee, revokes or revises an earlier executed testamentary instrument, or encompasses any one or more of such objects or purposes.

Source

Cross References

Annotations

"Any person interested in the welfare" of a protected person has standing to intervene and is not limited to those persons more narrowly defined as "interested persons" in subsection (21) of this section. In re Guardianship & Conservatorship of Cordel, 274 Neb. 545, 741 N.W.2d 675 (2007).

Pursuant to subsection (4) of this section, a judgment lien on the proceeds from a sale is not a claim subject to the provisions of the Nebraska Probate Code. Pursuant to subsection (4) of this section, the Nebraska Probate Code exempts liens because a lien by definition is not a liability as that term is used in the definition of claims. McCook Nat. Bank v. Bennett, 248 Neb. 567, 537 N.W.2d 353 (1995).

Subsection (4) of this section does not distinguish between legal and equitable title when excluding disputes regarding title of a decedent from the definition of "claims". Eggers v. Rittscher, 247 Neb. 648, 529 N.W.2d 741 (1995).

As "distributee" is defined in subdivision (11) of this section, failure to inform court of attorney fee payments did not violate this particular supervised administration because such fees were not "distributions." In re Estate of Snover, 233 Neb. 198, 443 N.W.2d 894 (1989).

An action to recover specific trust property, or its traceable product, from a decedent's estate is not a claim under subdivision (4) of this section and need not be filed as a claim against the estate. In re Estate of Chaney, 232 Neb. 121, 439 N.W.2d 764 (1989).