Kenseth v. Dallas County, 126 S.W.3d 584 (Tex. App.—Dallas 2004, pet. denied).
Plaintiff died during the course of a highly complex case dealing
with matters not relevant to estate planning. The issue arose whether
Heir was a proper substitute plaintiff even though she was not appointed
by the probate court as Plaintiff’s personal representative. The court
reviewed the applicable case law as well as Texas Rule of Civil
Procedure 151 and concluded that “if no estate administration is pending
and none is necessary, the plaintiff’s heir may appear in the case on
the plaintiff’s behalf.” Id. at 596. Accordingly, Heir was a proper
appellant and had standing to represent Plaintiff’s estate.
Moral: Problems may arise when the original parties to an action die and
successors in interest take over. To avoid these problems, the status of
the successors should be clearly documented and presented to the court.