uniform simultaneous death act
Uniform Simultaneous Death Act. A 1940 model statute creating a rule that a person must survive a decedent by at least 120 hours in order to avoid disputes caused by simultaneous deaths (as in a common disaster) or by quickly successive deaths of persons between whom property or death benefits pass on the death of one survived by the other. • In the absence of the 120-hour period of survival, each person is presumed to have survived the other for purposes of distributing their respective estates. The Act was revised in 1993 and has been adopted in some form by almost every state. See COMMORIENTES. [Cases: Death 5–6. C.J.S. Death §§ 6–7, 15–16.]
