A regular Source feature, Undercurrents explores issues, ideas and events as they develop beneath the surface in the Virgin Islands community.
If at first you don’t succeed, you might be trying to revise the territory’s probate law.
For at least a decade, the legislative, executive and judicial branches have been wrestling over the best way to update the pertinent V.I. Code provisions and to make them consistent with laws in other U.S. jurisdictions, and to speed up the probate process which famously can take many years.
Despite crippling twists and turns, they aren’t giving up.
Probate law has to do with administering the estate of a deceased person, resolving all claims and distributing the person’s property under a will. In late 2009, the Legislature finally passed a voluminous Uniform Probate Code, based on boilerplate legislation used in numerous states, overhauling the code. In early 2010, Gov. John de Jongh signed it into law, suggesting as he did so that it might be further amended.
In 2011 the Legislature repealed some sections, an action the governor let stand. But in the spring of 2012, it repealed more and the governor line-item vetoed that repeal, but the 29th Legislature overrode the veto.
Now, more than a year later, there is a serious move afoot to bring representatives of the three branches of government together to work out a solution.
St. Thomas attorney Tom Bolt, who chairs the V.I. Uniform Law Commission, said a meeting is planned for some time in October with judges and other representatives of the courts, some members or representatives of the Legislature, the Governor’s Office, the V.I. Bar Association and the Commission.
Bolt has been in the forefront – not to say in the crossfire – on probate revision for years.
He believes that the changes made in 2012 by the previous Legislative body “put Virgin Islanders in harm’s way” by reverting to portions of the old law, some of which are antiquated.
Specifically, as he wrote in a letter last year urging the unsuccessful line-item veto, Bolt said the 29th Legislature repealed sections of the statute that:
Facilitate the transfer at death of V.I. property owned by heirs who do not live in the territory;
Protect minors and disabled adults under guardianships by requiring that they be consulted regarding their care if they are able to communicate, and have as few restrictions as possible on their freedom;
Provide a simple and legally binding form to create a power of attorney and to protect against abuse;
Ensure the easy transfer of assets at death outside of the probate process using joint titling, Transfer On Death security registration or beneficiary designations so, for example, a person’s IRA can pass to his or her spouse on simple proof of the holder’s death;
Allow a custodian to manage the financial assets of an adult who is travelling internationally or who is incapacitated, without incurring the costs associated with a formal trust.
“They overrode the veto, and there we have a mess,” Bolt said last week.
Some lawmakers and some court officials thought there already was a mess, that the revision passed in 2009 was overly broad and confusing.
Former Sen. Usie Richards said Monday that he originally moved to repeal parts of the revised probate law at the request of the courts and to reenact the old law until there was consensus on how to revise it.
The October meeting is aimed at reaching such a consensus.
Bolt said Senate President Shawn-Michael Malone has asked the commission to make recommendations to address outstanding issues one by one, in separate bills, rather than tying them all together in a single piece of legislation. Malone could not be reached for comment Monday.
Richards confirmed he had heard a meeting is planned to try to work out the issues.
