Short answer. A special administrator. When there is delay in granting letters testamentary or of administration for any reason, including an appeal from the allowance or disallowance of a will, the court may appoint a special administrator to take possession and charge of the estate in the meantime.
What the law says
When there is delay in granting letters testamentary or of administration by any cause including an appeal from the allowance or disallowance of a will, the court may appoint a special administrator to take possession and charge of the estate of the deceased until the questions causing the delay are decided and executors or administrators appointed.
Rule 80, Section 1 — Appointment of special administrator. Read the full provision →
The trigger is delay, from any cause
The rule applies broadly: whenever there is delay in granting letters testamentary or of administration by any cause, the court may step in. The delay does not have to arise from any particular kind of dispute — the rule is framed to cover any cause of delay, not a narrow, specific list of situations the drafters happened to anticipate.
A contested will is expressly named as one such cause
The rule specifically calls out an appeal from the allowance or disallowance of a will as one example of a delay-causing dispute. A will being contested, and the resulting appeal, is exactly the kind of situation that can leave an estate without a regular executor or administrator for an extended stretch of time, sometimes years, which is what this rule is specifically designed to address.
The special administrator's role is temporary and functional
The special administrator is appointed to take possession and charge of the estate of the deceased, but only until the questions causing the delay are decided and executors or administrators appointed. This is a stopgap role, not a substitute for the regular executor or administrator who will eventually take over once the underlying dispute is finally resolved by the court.
The appointment exists precisely to fill this temporary gap, not to establish any kind of lasting, truly permanent alternative to regular administration.
Why this matters while a will contest drags on
An estate cannot simply sit unmanaged while a will contest works its way through the courts — property can deteriorate, debts can go unpaid, and assets can be at real risk without someone actively in charge. This rule ensures that even during a genuinely contested proceeding, someone has legal authority to manage and protect the estate until the underlying dispute over the will is finally and fully settled.
Interested heirs, creditors, and others dealing with the estate can look to the special administrator, rather than a legal vacuum, during this uncertain period.