Section PRP.04.02 — Definitions

As used in Chapter PRP.04, unless the context otherwise requires:

(a) "Abatement" means a reduction or decrease.

(b) "Administrator" means the person appointed by the Tribal Court to administer the estate of a decedent according to this Probate Code and may include an Administrator nominated by the decedent's will, appointed at the request of an interested party, appointed by the Court, or the public Administrator.

(c) "Beneficiary" means any person nominated in a will to receive an interest in property other than in a fiduciary capacity.

(d) "Class Gift" means a devise or gift to a body of people, uncertain in number at the time of the gift, to be ascertained at a future time, who are all to take in equal, or other definite proportions, the share of each being dependent for its amount upon the ultimate number of people in the class. Example: "I leave $10,000 to my grandchildren." In the example, the decedent's grandchildren constitute a class of people which may grow over time, but will be a certain number upon the death of the decedent.

(e) "Codicil" means a supplement or an addition to a will; it may explain, modify, add to, subtract from, qualify, alter, restrain or revoke provisions in an existing will. A codicil does not purport to dispose of the entire estate or to contain the entire will of the testator, nor does it ordinarily expressly or by implication revoke an entire prior will.

(f) "Decedent" means a person who has died leaving property that is subject to administration.

(g) "Devisee" means any person to whom lands or other real property are given by will.

(h) "Devolution" means the passage or transfer from one person to another; the falling on or accrual to one person as the successor of another.

(i) "Distributee" means any person to whom property of a decedent is distributed other than in payment of a claim, or who is entitled to property of a decedent under their will or the laws governing intestate succession.

(j) "Domicile" means the place where a person has his or her true, fixed and permanent home and principal establishment, and to which whenever s/he is absent s/he has the intention of returning.

(k) "Donee" means the recipient of a gift or conveyance. In contrast to the giver or donor.

(l) "Escheat" means reversion of property to the Tribe because no valid heir or person to inherit exists.

(m) "Fiduciary" as a noun means that person or institution who manages money or property for another and who must exercise the highest standard of care in such management activity; as an adjective, it describes the nature of a trust, which is the highest and most scrupulous duty owed to another.

(n) "Half-blood" means the degree of relationship which exists between those who have the same father or the same mother, but not both parents in common.

(o) "Heir" means any person, including the surviving spouse, who is entitled under the law governing intestate succession to an interest in the property of a decedent.

(p) "Incompetent" means a person who is substantially incapable of managing his or her property or caring for himself or herself by reason of infirmities of aging, developmental disabilities, or other like incapacities. Physical disability without mental incapacity is not sufficient to establish incompetence.

(q) "Indian" means a member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe, or any other person of Indian blood who is a member of a federally recognized Indian tribe or any other person on the Reservation who is recognized by the community as an Indian, including a Canadian Indian, Latin American Indian, Alaska Native, and/or Hawaiian Native.

(r) "Interested Witness" means any of the following:

(1) An heir of the decedent.

(2) A beneficiary named in any document offered for probate as the will of the decedent.

(3) A beneficiary of a trust created under any document offered for probate as the will of the decedent.

(4) A person named as Administrator or personal representative in any document offered for probate as the will of the decedent.

(5) Additional persons as the Tribal Court may include.

(s) "Intestate" means one who dies without leaving a valid will, or the circumstance of dying without leaving a valid will effectively disposing of all of the estate.

(t) "Intestate succession" means succession to property of a decedent who dies without a will or with a will that has certain provisions which are not valid.

(u) "Issue" when used to refer to persons who take by intestate succession, means children, grandchildren, lineal descendants of more remote degree, except those who are the lineal descendants of living descendants. The term includes adopted children and non-marital children and their issue.

(v) "Letters testamentary" means the formal document of authority and appointment given to an executor or administrator by the Court, empowering him or her to fulfill his or her duties as required by his position as executor or administrator.

(w) "Member" means an enrolled member of the Stockbridge-Munsee Tribe.

(x) "Personal Property" means all property other than real property.

(y) "Pretermitted" means a child or other descendant omitted from the will of a testator.

(z) "Property" means any interest, legal or equitable in real or personal property, without distinction as to kind, except trust property.

(aa) "Real property" means all interest in land or in buildings or improvement permanently attached to land.

(bb) "Renounce" means to make an affirmative declaration of abandonment. A waiver of rights.

(cc) "Reservation" means the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin.

(dd) "Residue" means the surplus or left over part of a testator's estate remaining after all the debts and distributions have been completed.

(ee) "Take by Representation" means the principle upon which the issue of a decedent take or inherit the share of an estate which their immediate ancestor would have taken or inherited, if living.

(ff) "Testator" means a decedent who dies leaving a valid will.

(gg) "Tribal Court" means the Tribal Court of the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohican Indians.

(hh) "Tribe" means the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Band of Mohicans.

(ii) "Trust Property" means real or personal property title to which is in the United States for the benefit of an Indian or Indian Tribe.