Price v. Lotlikar

The Oregon Probate Code allows an “interested person” to take certain actions with regard to a decedent’s estate, including petitioning to reopen an estate for proper cause. The code defines an “interested person” to include “heirs, devisees, children, spouses, creditors and any others having a property right or claim against the estate of a decedent that may he affected by the proceeding.” ORS 111.005(19) (emphasis added).1 The dispute in this case is over what the emphasized portion of that sentence modifies—that is, whether the phrase modifies only the term immediately preceding it—“any…