Donnie Wayne Winningham, Kelly Annette Winningham, and Kristy Milburn v. The Supervised Estate of Keri L. Winningham and Interested Party of Leigh Ann Schattner
The Appellants are the half-siblings of Keri Winningham. On September 27, 2014, Winningham was walking in Anderson when she was struck by a vehicle driven by one person and then run over by a vehicle driven by another person; she died as a result. At the time of her death, Winningham was a twenty-six- year-old unmarried adult who did not have a will.
Lori Rumreich, Winningham’s aunt, opened a supervised estate for Winningham and was appointed personal representative. As personal representative, Rumreich brought wrongful death claims against two insurance companies. Both companies agreed to settle the claims.
In her petition to open the estate, Rumreich listed the proceeds from the wrongful death claims as assets of the probate estate subject to distribution to the intestate beneficiaries. Sometime after receiving the trial court’s authorization to distribute those proceeds through intestate succession, but before the distribution actually took place, Rumreich became aware of the possibility that the proceeds were not assets of the probate estate and should not have been included in the assets to be distributed through intestate succession. . . .
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