Personal Injury Proceeds as Personal Property

The testator in Huaman v.Aquino, 630 S.E.2d 293 (Va. 2006), left all her personal property to be distributed equally among three of her brothers, Carlos, Oscar, and Aldo, and the residue of the estate to bedistributed among all her brothers equally. Two years prior to her death, shereceived serious injuries in an apartment fire. “After her death, the suit wasamended to include both survival and wrongful death counts under the law of theDistrict of Columbia. The suit was settled, and the net proceeds of the settlement to the estate were$1,778,578.” The issue was therefore whether the proceeds would pass under her estate as personal property, or whether they were a part of the residue of the estate.

The court said:

A chose inaction is “owned” by the possessor of the right to recover, andgenerally such ownership can be bequeathed in a will.

Ordinarily,a personal injury action is an exception to this general rule because itexpires at the moment a person bringing such action dies.

However,in this instance the chose in action did not expire under the laws of the District of Columbia.For this reason, the general rule, rather than the exception, is applicablehere. This particular chose in action was “owned” at the moment ofthe testator’s death, and accordingly the proceeds derived from the action passunder the personal property clause to Carlos, Oscar, and Aldo.