Art. 3083.Appointment of Dative Testamentary Executor

Not every testament works out the way it was written. The named executor may have died before the testator, may be disqualified under Article 3097, or may decline to accept the burden of administering the succession. Article 3083 covers all three situations, along with the case where the testament never named an executor at all.

In each of those circumstances, the court appoints what the law calls a dative testamentary executor. Dative here means court-appointed, in contrast to an executor the testator selected directly by name in the will. The estate still has a testament and is still a testate succession, but the person managing it was chosen by the court rather than the decedent.

Rather than inventing a separate procedure, Article 3083 borrows one: the dative testamentary executor is appointed the same way an administrator of an intestate succession is appointed. That means the notice, opposition, disqualification, and priority rules of Articles 3091 through 3098 all apply, including the ranked preference among a surviving spouse, heirs, legatees, their nominees, and creditors. The court can act on its own motion or on the motion of any interested party, so the succession is never left without a path to a qualified representative.