Okay, what sense does this make?

Did you know that the most common profession among state legislators is that of educator? That's right, teachers write most of our laws. So try this on (and it may take a bit of explanation, so stick with it).

When you probate a deceased person's estate in Missouri, it will either be independent or supervised. Supervised means that every little thing the executor does has to be approved by the probate court, making it a much more expensive and time consuming way to go. So, if you can, you prefer being independent. Missouri statute section 473.780 governs when you can and when you cannot be independent. Here's what it says:

You can be independent if the will explicitly says you can.

You cannot be independent if the will explicitly says you cannot.

If the will is silent then you can be independent if 1) in the case of an intestate estate, all the heirs agree to it in writing; 2) in the case of a testate estate, all the devisees agree to it in writing; or 3) if it is a combination of testate and intestate estates, then all the heirs and devisees must agree to it in writing. See http://www.moga.mo.gov/statutes/C400-499/4730000780.HTM

At law, a testate estate is when the decedent left a will and an intestate estate is one where someone dies without a will. A devisee is someone who is specifically bequested real property, i.e. land. by contrast, a legatee is someone who is specifically bequested personal property, i.e. cars, jewelry, coin collections, etc. I looked it up in Black's Law Dictionary.

So today, I had a small testate estate where the deceased had died in a nursing home. She had already sold any real property she owned and had only money accounts which were all specifically bequested to a single legatee. This is the poster child for independent administration. But her will had no provision either for or against independent administration, so I had to look at the rest of the statute. Let's see.... I have a will so I'm testate. If I'm testate then I need signed permission from all the... devisees. Except I don't have any real property in the estate so I have no devisees. And I fall through the cracks.

Any lawyer would know the difference between a devisee and a legatee, or at least know that they are different things. The distinction is important. Yet by common usage (read grammatical laziness) the two terms are frequently used to mean both or even the other. That's like saying that right and left are both directions so we can use whichever one we feel like. And that is exactly what the Missouri legislature has done. They said devisees, but as a matter of practice everyone knows they meant devisees and legatees. (And wouldn't you be surprised to find out that on the St. Louis County Probate Court's form for identifying devisees and legatees, they are simply both referred to as "legatees.")

I've oft heard that this nation of ours has too many lawyers. Perhaps it just needs to elect more of them to the legislature. I think (hope?) that if that were the case, if well-meaning teachers were not the largest group in the legislature, maybe our statutes would be a bit better drafted.