Utah Supreme Court considers whether three-year probate deadline can be revived under savings statute

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Supreme Court heard argument on whether Utah’s three-year probate timing provision bars later attempts to admit a will, or whether the state’s savings statute can permit refiling after an initial probate petition was dismissed for failure to prosecute.

Nathan Garcia, arguing for Tiffany Harmon and her siblings, told the court the probate-code timing rule should operate as a strict cutoff tied to the decedent’s date of death. Garcia said the Court of Appeals treated the provision as a statute of repose and that allowing the savings statute to revive a dismissed probate petition would “delay the ability for the swift administration of the estate and for the distribution of the estate towards the heirs.” He described the facts here as a petition that was first dismissed for failure to prosecute and then refiled 364 days later…