Art. 3396.10 Survivorship

This rule deals with wills that include a waiting period for legatees. Sometimes a will says a person must outlive the deceased by a certain amount of time, like 30 or 60 days, before they can actually inherit anything. This rule explains who gets to make decisions during that waiting period, specifically who can agree to let the estate be handled through independent administration.

The answer is simple: whoever is still alive when someone files the paperwork to start independent administration is the person who counts. That living legatee is the one allowed to give consent, even though it is not yet certain whether they will actually meet the survival requirement in the will down the road.

This matters because independent administration lets an executor manage the estate with less court supervision, but it usually requires agreement from the legatees first. This rule makes sure the process is not held up just because the will has a survival requirement that has not fully played out yet. It gives a clear answer about whose consent is needed at that specific point in time.