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Family testimony and experts back 120‑hour survivorship rule to avoid minute‑by‑minute probate fights
Summary
Delegate Congola and supporters urged adoption of a 120‑hour simultaneous‑death rule to prevent duplicative probate and avoid disinheritance when family members die within days or hours of one another; a bereaved daughter described ongoing litigation and emotional toll.
Delegate Latoya Congola asked the committee to adopt House Bill 596, a technical update to Maryland’s survivorship rules that would apply a 120‑hour rule for intestate succession and mirror the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act model adopted in many states. The rule treats two people who die within 120 hours of each other as having died simultaneously for purposes of intestate succession in the absence of a will indicating otherwise.
Julia Cage and Joanna Bloom described family experience and the practical burdens the current law poses when estates are contested minute‑by‑minute. "We should not be litigating tragedies by the minute," Bloom said, recounting a house fire that killed both her father and his wife and left the family in repeated probate proceedings and legal uncertainty.
Uniform Law Commission counsel said the model has been adopted in more than 20 jurisdictions and works to reduce double probate and wasted court resources; advocates asked the committee to report the bill favorably and align Maryland with other states.
Committee members had no substantive objections in the hearing record and indicated they would follow up with bill sponsors and judiciary staff on drafting and cross‑file timing in the Senate.
