Group XIV: Fiduciary Proceedings · Not amended since adoption on record · Last verified July 14, 2026
Identical to USDCDC Rule 24.
Rule 307 answers a narrow but concrete question: when the court orders land sold and someone holds a dower interest in it, how much of the sale proceeds does that person get? Dower is a spouse's traditional interest in a share of the other spouse's real property, valued for life rather than as an outright share of the land itself, so selling the land forces the court to convert that lifetime interest into a present dollar figure. Rule 307(a) supplies a default schedule of fractions tied to the dower holder's age, running from one-sixth for someone under 30 down to one-twentieth for someone over 77, reflecting that a younger person can expect to hold the interest longer than an older one. The court can adjust the figure in an individual case, since the schedule applies “unless otherwise adjudged.”
Rule 307(b) extends the same logic to a person holding a life estate — the right to use and enjoy property for the rest of one's life rather than the more limited dower interest. A healthy life-estate holder's allowance, again unless the court adjudges otherwise, is set at three times the dower allowance for a person of the same age under the schedule in Rule 307(a).
The official Comment notes that this rule tracks the same rule that once governed the analogous federal district court practice, underscoring that the specific fractions in the schedule are a longstanding, established default rather than a novel calculation the court devised for this rule.
It applies when land subject to a dower interest is sold under a judgment of the Superior Court and the dower interest needs to be commuted into a share of the sale proceeds, unless the court adjudges a different result in the case.
Rule 307(a) sets a schedule of fractions by age bracket, running from one-sixth of the sale proceeds for a healthy person under 30 down to one-twentieth for someone over 77, so the commuted share generally gets smaller as the dower holder's age increases.
Rule 307(b) sets the allowance for a healthy life-estate holder at three times the dower allowance a person of the same age would receive under the Rule 307(a) schedule, unless the court orders otherwise.
Yes. Both the dower schedule in Rule 307(a) and the life-estate multiplier in Rule 307(b) apply only “unless otherwise adjudged,” leaving the court free to set a different figure in a particular case.
It is specifically aimed at commuting dower and life-estate interests when land carrying those interests is sold by court judgment; the broader mechanics of court-ordered real estate sales are covered separately in Rule 308.