According to the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, what happens if the order of death cannot be established?

Under the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, if the order of death between individuals who die under circumstances where it is uncertain who died first, the legal treatment of their estates is such that each decedent's property is treated as if they survived the other. This means that for purposes of transferring property to heirs or beneficiaries, the law essentially treats each person as having outlived the other.

This provision helps to simplify the administration of estates when simultaneous deaths occur, ensuring that neither party is unjustly enriched by inheriting property that would have passed to the other had the order of death been clear. It aims to avoid complicated disputes over inheritance and potential claims against each other’s estates. This treatment aligns with the principles of fairness and prevents uncertainty from undermining the distribution of estates.

In contrast, the other choices propose solutions that do not align with the Act's intentions or stipulations. For instance, dividing property equally may not reflect the rightful succession intended by the decedents' wishes or applicable laws. The state taking all property doesn’t address the complexities of intestacy or the wishes of the deceased. Auctioning off the property is not a customary response to simultaneous deaths and would complicate the estates' distributions. Thus, the accurate interpretation according to