Unless previously adjudicated in a formal testacy proceeding or in a proceeding settling the accounts of a personal representative or unless otherwise barred, the claim of a claimant to recover from a distributee who is liable to pay the claim and the right of an heir or devisee or of a successor personal representative acting in their behalf to recover property improperly distributed or its value from any distributee is forever barred at the later of three years after the decedent's death or one year after the time of its distribution, but all claims of creditors of the decedent are barred one year after the decedent's death. This section does not bar an action to recover property or value received as the result of fraud.
History: 1953 Comp., § 32A-3-1006, enacted by Laws 1975, ch. 257, § 3-1006; 1993, ch. 174, § 82.
ANNOTATIONSOfficial comments. — See Commissioners on Uniform State Law official comment to 3-1006 UPC.
The 1993 amendment, effective July 1, 1993, added the language beginning "but all claims" at the end of the first sentence and made minor stylistic changes.
Applicable to estate devisees. — Neither 45-3-803 NMSA 1978 nor 45-3-806 NMSA 1978 provided the controlling relevant limitations where petitioners were not creditors, but devisees of the estate. Accordingly, the relevant limitations period was found in this section. In re Estate of Gardner, 1992-NMCA-122, 114 N.M. 793, 845 P.2d 1247.
Previous adjudication in formal testacy proceeding bars heir's claim to recover improperly distributed property, absent fraud. In re Estate of Kemnitz, 1981-NMCA-013, 95 N.M. 513, 623 P.2d 1027.
Am. Jur. 2d, A.L.R. and C.J.S. references. — 26A Descent and Distribution § 133; 97 C.J.S. Wills § 1328.