When the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed one year ago, María del Carmen Castellón Luna lost her husband, Miguel Luna, one of the construction workers on the bridge at the time. But unlike many whose loved ones die, Castellón Luna was not allowed to serve as the personal representative of her husband’s estate because Maryland does not allow people who are not citizens to fill that role.
On Wednesday, the anniversary of the bridge’s collapse, members of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee considered a bill that would change that rule. The measure, sponsored by Montgomery County Del. Teresa Woorman, has already passed the House.
The bill “allows grieving families, many of them who are immigrants, who have built their lives here, to move forward with dignity, clarity and justice,” Woorman said during Wednesday’s hearing. “This bill will ensure that families like Miguel Luna’s are not denied their ability to honor their loved ones and carry out their final wishes.”
Without that fix in place, Castellón Luna had no say over what happened to the house she and Luna bought together, she told lawmakers during a hearing before the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. Her husband didn’t have a will, and her name was not on the deed.
“This is an injustice that can easily be remedied by the power of this legislative body, the power that you have to declare any person, regardless of their immigration status, to be able to be the personal representative of their loved one’s estate,” Castellón Luna said through an interpreter. “I hope that we don't have to ever again have another family go through what my family has had to go through due to our immigration status during this very difficult tragedy.”
None of Maryland’s neighboring states — Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Delaware, Virginia or Washington, D.C. — has a similar restriction on noncitizens acting as the personal representative of a loved one’s estate, said Howard County Register of Wills Byron Macfarlane.
Macfarlane said Maryland’s restriction often forces surviving relatives to hire attorneys, which is more than many can afford.
“I worry that this barrier to access to our system may force people to dispose of those assets outside of the normal process,” he said. “As a matter of common sense and basic fairness, let's repeal this restriction.”
