2005 Missouri Revised Statutes - § 472.010. — Definitions.

472.010. When used in this code, unless otherwise apparent from the context:

(1) "Administrator" includes any administrator de bonis non, administrator cum testamento annexo, administrator ad litem and administrator during absence or minority;

(2) "Child" includes an adopted child and a child born out of wedlock, but does not include a grandchild or other more remote descendants;

(3) "Claims" include liabilities of the decedent which survive whether arising in contract, tort or otherwise, funeral expenses, the expense of a tombstone, and costs and expenses of administration;

(4) "Clerk" means clerk of the probate division of the circuit court;

(5) "Code" or "probate code" means chapters 472, 473, 474 and 475, RSMo;

(6) "Court" or "probate court" means the probate division of the circuit court;

(7) "Devise", when used as a noun, means a testamentary disposition of real or personal property or both; when used as a verb it means to dispose of real or personal property or both by will;

(8) "Devisee" includes legatee;

(9) "Distributee" denotes those persons who are entitled to the real and personal property of a decedent under his will, under the statutes of intestate succession or who take as surviving spouse under section 474.160, RSMo, upon election to take against the will;

(10) "Domicile" means the place in which a person has voluntarily fixed his abode, not for a mere special or temporary purpose, but with a present intention of remaining there permanently or for an indefinite time;

(11) "Estate" means the real and personal property of the decedent or ward, as from time to time changed in form by sale, reinvestment or otherwise, and augmented by any accretions and additions thereto and substitutions therefor, and diminished by any decreases and distributions therefrom;

(12) "Exempt property" means that property of a decedent's estate which is not subject to be applied to the payment of claims, charges, legacies or bequests as described in section 474.250, RSMo;

(13) "Fiduciary" includes executor, administrator, guardian, conservator, and trustee;

(14) "Heirs" means those persons, including the surviving spouse, who are entitled under the statutes of intestate succession to the real and personal property of a decedent on his death intestate;

(15) "Interested persons" mean heirs, devisees, spouses, creditors or any others having a property right or claim against the estate of a decedent being administered and includes children of a protectee who may have a property right or claim against or an interest in the estate of a protectee. This meaning may vary at different stages and different parts of a proceeding and must be determined according to the particular purpose and matter involved;

(16) "Issue" of a person, when used to refer to persons who take by intestate succession, includes adopted children and all lawful lineal descendants, except those who are the lineal descendants of living lineal descendants of the intestate;

(17) "Lease" includes an oil and gas lease or other mineral lease, but does not include month-to-month or year-to-year tenancies under oral contracts;

(18) "Legacy" means a testamentary disposition of personal property;

(19) "Legatee" means a person entitled to personal property under a will;

(20) "Letters" include letters testamentary, letters of administration and letters of guardianship;

(21) "Lien" includes all liens except general judgment, execution and attachment liens;

(22) "Lineal descendants" include adopted children and their descendants;

(23) "Mortgage" includes deed of trust, vendor's lien and chattel mortgage;

(24) "Person" includes natural persons and corporations;

(25) "Personal property" includes interests in goods, money, choses in action, evidences of debt, shares of corporate stock, and chattels real;

(26) "Personal representative" means executor or administrator. It includes an administrator with the will annexed, an administrator de bonis non, an administrator pending contest, an administrator during minority or absence, and any other type of administrator of the estate of a decedent whose appointment is permitted. It does not include an executor de son tort;

(27) "Property" includes both real and personal property;

(28) "Real property" includes estates and interests in land, corporeal or incorporeal, legal or equitable, other than chattels real;

(29) "Registered mail" includes "certified mail" as defined and certified under regulations of the United States Postal Service;

(30) "Will" includes codicil; it also includes a testamentary instrument which merely appoints an executor and a testamentary instrument which merely revokes or revives another will.

(L. 1955 p. 385 § 2, A.L. 1957 p. 829, A.L. 1978 H.B. 1634, A.L. 1980 S.B. 637, A.L. 1983 S.B. 44 & 45, A.L. 1986 S.B. 787)

Effective 6-3-86

(1955) Will construed and words "descendants of a deceased child" of testator held to include an adopted child of testator's deceased son. Hayes v. St. Louis Union Trust Co. (Mo.), 280 S.W.2d 649.

(1958) Devise of undivided one-half interest in realty to testator's son for life and at his death to his children absolutely but if he should die without issue living then to other son for life and at his death to other son's "heirs at law" was construed according to statute of descent and distribution in effect when second life tenant died rather than statute in effect at execution of will and testator's death and thus widow of second life tenant took one-half of the undivided one-half interest against contention that testator indicated intent that land go to his descendants. Thomas v. Higginbotham (Mo.), 318 S.W.2d 234.

(1959) Evidence held to establish domicile in state of Louisiana by prior resident of this state who had died, for the purpose of determining where his estate should be dispersed. In re Toler's Estate (Mo.), 325 S.W.2d 755.

(1965) As used in subsection 2 of § 475.320, the word "debts" is the substantial equivalent of "claims", which is defined in this section, subdivision (4), as including liabilities of the decedent which survive whether arising in contract or in tort or otherwise, funeral expenses, the expense of a tombstone and costs, and expenses of administrator. State v. Hollenbeck (A.), 394 S.W.2d 82.

(1974) Provision in will that executor gave to pastor of a named church a sum for masses to be said entitled the pastor to receive as a gift personal property and he was a "legatee" and a necessary party to suit to set aside will. Kane v. Mercantile Trust Co. National Association (Mo.), 513 S.W.2d 362.