The Simultaneous Death Act is a state or local law which provides
that if two persons (usually a husband and wife) both die under conditions
in which it is impossible to determine which one died first, the property
of each person shall be disposed of as if he had survived, except as provided
otherwise.
Such statutes generally provide that when property is so disposed of
that the right of a beneficiary to succeed to any interest therein is conditional
upon his surviving another person and both persons die, and there is no
sufficient evidence that the two have died other than simultaneously, the
beneficiary shall be deemed not to have survived.
In the case of life insurance, for example, it's presumed the insured
outlives the beneficiary, and the money goes to the secondary or contingent
beneficiary. Deaths may be treated as simultaneous under the law even when
one spouse dies within five days after the other one if both died due to
a common accident. And some states have modified that act for people surviving
as much as 120 days.
The following is an example of a state's Simultaneous Death Act:
"§ 2105.32. When person is deemed to have predeceased another person.
(A) Except as provided in section 2105.36 of the Revised Code,
a person who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to have
survived another specified person by one hundred twenty hours is deemed
to have predeceased the other person for the following purposes:
- When the title to real or personal property or the devolution of
real or personal property depends upon a person's survivorship of the death
of another person;
- When the right to elect an interest in or exempt a surviving spouse's
share of an intestate estate under section 2105.06 of the Revised Code
depends upon a person's survivorship of the death of another person;
- When the right to elect an interest in or exempt an interest of
the decedent in the mansion house pursuant to section 2106.10 of the Revised
Code depends upon a person's survivorship of the death of another person;
- When the right to elect an interest in or exempt an allowance for
support pursuant to section 2106.13 of the Revised Code depends upon a
person's survivorship of the death of another person.
(B) This section does not apply if its application would result
in a taking of an intestate estate by the state.
§ 2105.34. Disposition where there are co-owners with right of
survivorship.
Except as provided in section 2105.36 of the Revised Code:
- If it is not established by clear and convincing evidence that one
of two co-owners with right of survivorship in specified real or personal
property survived the other co-owner by one hundred twenty hours, that
property shall pass as if each person had survived the other person by
one hundred twenty hours.
- If there are more than two co-owners with right of survivorship
in specified real or personal property and it is not established by clear
and convincing evidence that at least one of the co-owners survived the
others by one hundred twenty hours, that property shall pass in the proportion
that each person owns.
§ 2105.36. Governing instrument provisions; effect of statute against
perpetuities.
A person who is not established by clear and convincing evidence to
have survived another specified person by one hundred twenty hours shall
not be deemed to have predeceased the other person if any of the following
apply:
- The governing instrument contains language dealing explicitly with
simultaneous deaths or deaths in a common disaster, and that language is
operative under the situation in question.
- The governing instrument expressly indicates that a person is not
required to survive an event by any specified period in order for any right
or interest governed by the instrument to properly vest or transfer.
- The governing instrument expressly requires the person to survive
the event for a specified period in order for any right or interest governed
by the instrument to properly vest or transfer, and the survival of the
event by the person or survival of the event by the person for the specified
period is established by clear and convincing evidence.
- The imposition of a one-hundred-twenty-hour requirement of the person's
survival of the other specified person causes a nonvested property interest
or a power of appointment to be invalid under section 2131.08 of the Revised
Code, and the person's survival of the other specified person is established
by clear and convincing evidence.
- The application of a one-hundred-twenty-hour requirement of survival
to multiple governing instruments would result in an unintended failure
or duplication of a disposition, and the person's survival of the other
specified person is established by clear and convincing evidence."
