Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Texas

Re: will

You should ask the court to appoint a receiver to represent your sister or her estate if she truly can't be found. You didn't mention your mother. Is she alive? Did she have a will if she is dead? The final answer may not be so easy.

Re: will

Was your dad's estate entered into probate? Is your mom still alive? Were letters ever issued (administration of the estate)? All these affect what will have to be done next.

Re: will

If the children of your father and your mother are the same, and assuming that the house is community property, then your mother will inherit all of your father's community property. Either way, I assume that you and your mother are in agreement to sell the home. Otherwise, she has homestead rights for the rest of her life.

If your father has children by a woman other than your mother, then all of your father's children inherit all of your father's share of the community property.

If your sister and her children, if any, have not been heard of or from for over seven years and if you have no address for any of them and don't know whether the sister and her children are living, then you should file an action for determination of heirship. Under these circumstances there is a presumption that the sister died without any surviving descendants.

In a determination of heirship proceeding the court will appoint an attorney ad litem to represent the missing heirs and he will make a search for them. If the sister and her children cannot be found, then the court probably will find that you and/or your mother are only the surviving heirs.

Unless you are some type of super-whiz, you will not be able to accomplish this without a lawyer.

P.S. There is a presumption of death statute in both the Probate Code and the Civil Practices and Remedies Code in Texas. Print this message out for your lawyer, because this situation does not come up very frequently in most lawyer's lifetimes.