Non-Claim Statute Does Not Violate Due Process

Missouri has a “self-executing” nonclaim statute which cuts off all claims against a decedent’s estate one year after death, whether or not administration of the estate is opened or the claimant has been given any sort of notice.

The Missouri Supreme Court in an en banc opinion upheld the statute’s constitutionality against a due process challenge based on Tulsa Professional Collection Services v. Pope, 485 U.S. 478 (1988), which the court distinguished as involving a statute that was not “self-executing.”

State ex rel. Houska v. Dickhaner, 323 S.W.3d 29 (Mo. 2010).

Special thanks to William P. LaPiana (Rita and Joseph Solomon Professor of Wills, Trusts,and Estates, New York Law School) for bringing this to my attention.