Law of Wills, 2016A

was taken off of life support on April 14, 2000 and pronounced dead. Trina gave the hospital
permission to remove Anita from last support on April 17, 2000. Was there sufficient evidence that
Anita survived Parker?
3.3.3 UPC and Modern USDA (120 Hour Rule)
It was basically impossible to determine if one person survived another person by an instant.
In addition, as the situation in problem 3 indicates, the order of death may sometimes be controlled
by doctors or other circumstances. In the interests of judicial economy and judicial consistency,
states legislatures adopted a bright line survival rule as a default approach. That approach was
codified in both the UPC and the USDA. It should be noted that the 120 hour rule does not really
solve the life support situation discussed in problem 3. In acknowledgment of that fact, most
probate attorneys include survival clauses in wills that mandate that the person survives the decedent
by 30 or 60 days.
Uniform Probate Act § 2-104. Requirement that Heir Survive Decedent for 120 Hours.
An individual who fails to survive the decedent by 120 hours is deemed to have predeceased the
decedent for purposes of homestead allowance, exempt property, and intestate succession, and the
decedent’s heirs are determined accordingly. If it is not established by clear and convincing evidence
that an individual who would otherwise be an heir survived the decedent by 120 hours, it is deemed
that the individual failed to survive for the required period. This section is not to be applied if its
application would result in a taking of intestate estate by the state under Section 2-105.
Stephens v. Beard, 428 S.W.3d 385 (Ct. App. Tex. 2014)
HOYLE, Justice.
Elaine Stephens, independent executrix of the estate of Vencie Beard and of the estate of Melba
Beard, appeals from declaratory judgments construing Vencie Beard’s will and Melba Beard’s will. In
two issues, Stephens asserts that the trial court erred in determining that Vencie and his wife, Melba,
died in a common disaster and that the Simultaneous Death Act applies to this case. We affirm.
BACKGROUND
Vencie Beard shot and killed his wife, Melba, on April 16, 2011. The death certificate states that the
time of her death was 8:59 p.m. Vencie died that same night at 10:55 p.m. from a self-inflicted
gunshot wound.
Paragraph 2.02 of each of the decedents’ wills provided for specific cash bequests to nine named
individuals if both Vencie and Melba died in a common disaster or under circumstances making it
impossible to determine which died first. Paragraph 2.03 of each will provided that if the spouse did
not survive the testator by ninety days, Janet Lea Hopkins would receive a portion of a tract of land.
Paragraph 2.04 of each will provided that if the spouse did not survive the testator by ninety days,
Matthew C. Hopkins would receive the remaining portion of that tract of land. In paragraph 2.05 of
104