Spouse's debt after death - community property state - but moved

[WhatToDoNick]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Washington

Looking for some info on a pretty specific situation that I'm in. My wife passed away while we were living in Washington State, which is a community property state. So I understand that I'd be obligated to repay debt which was excursively under her name. However I'm now living in Canada, BC, which is a non-community property province. My wife had no assets of her own, so there is no money in an estate for debtors to pull from. My question is this: Am I legally obligated to repay her credit cards and medical bills which are solely under her name? Thank you very much.

 

[OHRoadwarrior]

Yes, moving to a different country does not change the state for probate.

 

[latigo]

. . . . . Am I legally obligated to repay her credit cards and medical bills which are solely under her name?

Yes! That, is unless you could prove that her credit card expenditures were for the exclusive use/benefit of her sole and separate property, or to reduce obligations that she owed prior to the marriage.

Her medical care, definitely yes.

Yours and her joint and several liability for marital debts were fixed at the time the debts were incurred. And remains undiminished by her death, the status of her estate, the mere fact that the cards were "solely in her name", nor your departure from Washington state.

Nor would it differ if the marital domicile was in a common law property state, that is a state not having adopted community property law.

___________________

Also what might be of interest to you is that your absence from the state does not necessary mean that one or more of your creditors by invoking Washington's long arm statute could not recover a personal judgment against you issued by a Washington court.

If you wish to know whether such a Washington judgment could be enforced in Canada, you'd need to ask someone else. I don't know and have no reason to know. All I know about Canada is that they ship a lot of their frigid air down here.

 

[single317dad]

This lawyer provided an informative write-up on the process of enforcing legal judgments in Canada (Ontario, specifically, but much of the precedent is set at the Supreme Court level).

http://www.hg.org/article.asp?id=6168

It appears that the process may be expensive and require excellent proof of service, but an American expat defendant could easily find himself with the creditor's hounds on his heels Up North.