| 1 | A bill to be entitled |
| 2 | An act relating to the descent of an intestate estate; |
| 3 | amending s. 723.103, F.S.; authorizing the court to extend |
| 4 | the right of succession to surviving heirs under certain |
| 5 | circumstances when the decedent's lineage cannot be fully |
| 6 | documented because it includes a Holocaust victim; |
| 7 | limiting the application of statutes of limitation and |
| 8 | laches under certain circumstances; defining the term |
| 9 | "Holocaust victim"; providing an effective date. |
| 10 |
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| 11 | Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: |
| 12 |
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| 13 | Section 1. Section 732.103, Florida Statutes, is amended |
| 14 | to read: |
| 15 | 732.103 Share of other heirs.--The part of the intestate |
| 16 | estate not passing to the surviving spouse under s. 732.102, or |
| 17 | the entire intestate estate if there is no surviving spouse, |
| 18 | descends as follows: |
| 19 | (1) To the lineal descendants of the decedent. |
| 20 | (2) If there is no lineal descendant, to the decedent's |
| 21 | father and mother equally, or to the survivor of them. |
| 22 | (3) If there is none of the foregoing, to the decedent's |
| 23 | brothers and sisters and the descendants of deceased brothers |
| 24 | and sisters. |
| 25 | (4) If there is none of the foregoing, the estate shall be |
| 26 | divided, one-half of which shall go to the decedent's paternal, |
| 27 | and the other half to the decedent's maternal, kindred in the |
| 28 | following order: |
| 29 | (a) To the grandfather and grandmother equally, or to the |
| 30 | survivor of them. |
| 31 | (b) If there is no grandfather or grandmother, to uncles |
| 32 | and aunts and descendants of deceased uncles and aunts of the |
| 33 | decedent. |
| 34 | (c) If there is either no paternal kindred or no maternal |
| 35 | kindred, the estate shall go to the other kindred who survive, |
| 36 | in the order stated above. |
| 37 | (5) If there is no kindred of either part, the whole of |
| 38 | the property shall go to the kindred of the last deceased spouse |
| 39 | of the decedent as if the deceased spouse had survived the |
| 40 | decedent and then died intestate entitled to the estate. |
| 41 | (6) If there are none of the foregoing and part of the |
| 42 | normal family lineage of the intestate decedent cannot be |
| 43 | documented because it includes a Holocaust victim, the probate |
| 44 | court may extend the right of succession to other persons who |
| 45 | the best available evidence shows are surviving heirs. A |
| 46 | petition by a person claiming to be such an heir may not be |
| 47 | dismissed for failure to comply with an applicable statute of |
| 48 | limitations or laches. In addition, the court may allow such |
| 49 | claimant to meet a reasonable, not unduly restrictive, standard |
| 50 | to substantiate a claim, including a claim that a person's |
| 51 | whereabouts are unknown, as evidence of a decedent if such claim |
| 52 | is from a source that a reasonable person would accept as |
| 53 | reliable in the conduct of his or her affairs. For purposes of |
| 54 | this subsection, the term "Holocaust victim" means a person who |
| 55 | disappeared or lost his or her life or property as a result of |
| 56 | discriminatory laws, policies, or actions targeted against |
| 57 | discrete groups or persons between 1900 and 1945, inclusive, in |
| 58 | Nazi Germany, areas occupied by Nazi Germany, or countries |
| 59 | allied or cooperating with Nazi Germany. |
| 60 | Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law. |