75-3-401 - Formal testacy proceedings -- Nature -- When commenced.
75-3-401. Formal testacy proceedings -- Nature -- When commenced.
(1) A formal testacy proceeding is litigation to determine whether a decedent left a validwill. A formal testacy proceeding may be commenced by an interested person filing a petition asdescribed in Subsection 75-3-402(1) in which he requests that the court, after notice and hearing,enter an order probating a will, or a petition to set aside an informal probate of a will or to preventinformal probate of a will which is the subject of a pending application, or a petition inaccordance with Subsection 75-3-402(3) for an order that the decedent died intestate.
(2) A petition may seek formal probate of a will without regard to whether the same or aconflicting will has been informally probated. A formal testacy proceeding may, but need not,involve a request for appointment of a personal representative.
(3) During the pendency of a formal testacy proceeding, the registrar shall not act uponany application for informal probate of any will of the decedent or any application for informalappointment of a personal representative of the decedent.
(4) Unless a petition in a formal testacy proceeding also requests confirmation of theprevious informal appointment, a previously appointed personal representative, after receipt ofnotice of the commencement of a formal probate proceeding, must refrain from exercising hispower to make any further distribution of the estate during the pendency of the formalproceeding. A petitioner who seeks the appointment of a different personal representative in aformal proceeding also may request an order restraining the acting personal representative fromexercising any of the powers of his office and requesting the appointment of a specialadministrator. In the absence of a request, or if the request is denied, the commencement of aformal proceeding has no effect on the powers and duties of a previously appointed personalrepresentative other than those relating to distribution.
Amended by Chapter 194, 1977 General Session