Florida Supreme Court Clarifies Rules On Notice To Creditors Of Estate

When Harry Jones died, his estate published the required notice to creditors in a local paper but never served his ex-wife who was a creditor of the estate. Within two years of the publication, she learned of his death and filed a claim but was denied on the basis that the statute of limitations started to run on publication of notice to creditors and had expired. However, the ex-wife countered that she was a creditor that was reasonably ascertainable and since service had not been given, a different statute of limitations applied.

In Jones v. Golden, the Florida Supreme Court clarified a circuit split and ruled that the relevant statute created two obligations on the estate, one to publish notice for unknown creditors and another to provide direct service to every creditor whose claim should reasonably have been known. The limitation period of 3 months to bring a claim under 773.702 applies only to unknown creditors reliant on publication or known creditors that have been provided service. Since no service had been provided than the two year limitation period under 733.710 applies and the ex-wife’s claim was valid.

See Anya Van Veen, Florida Known Creditors Denied Notice Have Two Years To File Claims, Clark Skatoff, October 2, 2015.