An executor de son tort is a person who interferes with the administration of a deceased person’s estate when they lack the legal authority to do this. An executor is a person who is appointed in a will to administer the estate. Or, an executor may be appointed by a court.The executor de son tort has not been appointed but takes it upon themselves to meddle in the administration of the estate of a deceased person and to act as if they are an executor.
State law regulates wills, estates, and probate, so each state defines an “executor de son tort” in its own way. State law determines what the liability is for a person who acts as an executor de son tort.
The term “executor de son tort” can be translated as “executor of one’s own wrong.” In other words, a person who is an executor de son tort becomes the executor of an estate because of their own improper actions.
The laws that apply to estate administration provide that a meddler who takes actions in connection with an estate is an executor de son tort if the following are true:
- The person asserts ownership over some portion of the deceased’s estate. For example, they might sell property of the estate or liquidate investments, e.g.,sell stock holdings; and
- Their actions are unlawful because they do not have the legal authority to take the actions.
Suppose a person claims ownership over the real property of a deceased person or distributes some of their personal belongings to heirs of their choosing. In that case, they become an executor de son tort. Actions carried out in accordance with the terms of a fake or forged will also qualify as conduct that puts a person into the position of an executor de son tort.
An executor de son tort may be legally liable for any losses resulting from improper handling of the estate’s property.
However, in some states, if the unauthorized actions of an executor de son tort are motivated by charity and goodwill for the deceased, they do not make the person who takes the actions into an executor de son tort. Rather, it has to be proven that the person showed some sort of unlawful or harmful intent when they acted without proper authority.
Again, a “rightful executor” is a person who has the legal authority to administer a deceased person’s estate in probate. A rightful executor is either named in the will of the deceased person or, if no one is named, appointed by a probate court. A probate court might also appoint an executor if the executor named in the will renounces the role or applies to the court to be relieved of the role.
In a reported case from Canada, which has similar laws regarding wills, probate and executors, the deceased left primary and secondary wills. Both of them appointed his wife and daughter as executors of the estate. The daughter renounced the role of executor, and the wife began to administer the estate.
The probate court ordered the wife to submit an official application to the court for appointment as the executor. The court warned that if she did not apply, she would have to renounce her appointment. The wife of the deceased failed to do as ordered, so by the operation of law in Canada, her right to serve as the executor was lost.
The wife, however, continued to manage the business that the estate owned. When another party applied to be appointed as the executor, the court ruled that although the wife’s right to act as executor had been lost, the role had still devolved to her as an executor de son tort due to her meddling in the management of an estate asset. The court held that the wife could only be removed through the appropriate process for the removal or resignation of an executor.
