When a parent dies in Nueces County without a will, the Estates Code decides who inherits, but it does not name those people. A bank, a title company or a buyer will want a court judgment that does. When the family disagrees about who belongs on that list, the case to get the judgment becomes a contested heirship proceeding.
Most heirship disputes are about shares. Each heir added reduces everyone else’s share, and an heir who is left out can later challenge a sale that was made without them. The cases we see usually start with one of these facts:
An affidavit of heirship is signed by witnesses and recorded in the county property records. No judge reviews it, a later affidavit can contradict it, and a title company can decline to rely on it. If the family agrees and an affidavit is all the title company needs, a transactional firm can prepare one for much less than litigation costs. This office does not prepare affidavits of heirship.
A proceeding to declare heirship is a lawsuit. The heirs are made parties, the court hears evidence, and the court signs a judgment that binds the parties before it. When the family is in a dispute, that judgment is usually what a title company needs before it will insure a sale.
Estates Code §202.008 lists the required parties: each unknown heir of the decedent, each person named as an heir in the application, and each person the deed records show as owning an interest in real property described in the application. A relative cannot be left out because the relationship is uncomfortable or the person is hard to reach. A judgment entered without a required party is open to challenge later, often when a title examiner reviews the file before a sale.
Under §202.009(a), the court shall appoint an attorney ad litem to represent the interests of heirs whose names or locations are unknown. The appointment is mandatory in every proceeding to declare heirship. The ad litem looks for heirs the application does not list, so if your position is that the decedent had no other children, expect the ad litem to look into it.
Estates Code §202.005 sets out the contents of the application. Among other things, it must give the decedent’s date and place of death; the names, ages, addresses and relationships of the heirs; each of the decedent’s marriages, with dates and how each ended; and a statement that all children born to or adopted by the decedent have been listed. If required information is missing, the application has to explain why.
That account of the family goes into the court file at the start of the case, before anyone has been deposed, and the other side can use it for the rest of the case. We go through the marriages, divorces and births with the client before anything is filed.
Nueces County has no statutory probate court. Under Estates Code §32.002(b), in a county with no statutory probate court but with a county court at law exercising original probate jurisdiction, the county court at law and the county court have concurrent original jurisdiction of probate proceedings. Government Code §25.1801 creates five County Courts at Law in Nueces County, and §25.1802(a)(5) gives them jurisdiction over the estates of deceased persons.
These are not probate-only courts. The same judges hear other civil matters, and an heirship trial shares the docket with unrelated cases. Under §25.1802(n), the district clerk serves as clerk of a county court at law in these cases, so heirship filings go to the Nueces County District Clerk.
Estates Code §55.002 gives a party in a contested probate proceeding the right to a jury. Under Government Code §25.1802(o), a jury in a Nueces County court at law has six members unless the constitution or another law requires twelve.
Kreig LLC is a litigation practice. We take contested heirship proceedings, will contests and inherited property disputes. The full list is on the practice page.
Bring what you have, including death certificates, deeds, divorce decrees, obituaries, and addresses for anyone who might claim a share. Heirship cases are decided on records and on the testimony of people who knew the family, and both get harder to find as time passes.
Office: Kreig LLC, 710 Buffalo St., Suite 802, Corpus Christi, TX 78401, by appointment. Serving Nueces, San Patricio, Kleberg, Aransas and Jim Wells counties.
If your family disagrees about who the heirs are, and the answer decides who owns the property, call us to talk it through.
The first call is short and free.