Tenn. Code Ann. § 30-2-714: Recovery of assets after close of estate

(a) When all the debts of any deceased person are paid in full, and the administrator or executor of the deceased persons has resigned, or is dead, and there is no person representing the deceased person as administrator or executor, and there are claims due the estate of the decedent, that, from insolvency or other cause, were not collected by the administrator or executor of the decedent, then, the next of kin of the deceased persons may sue for, receive, and collect those claims in their own names; provided, however, that the claims so received shall be distributed in accordance with the statutes of descent and distribution, if the person left no will, but in the event the person left a last will and testament, then in accordance with the will.

(b) If the claims, or any of them, were reduced to judgment in the lifetime of the decedent, or by the decedent's administrator or executor, then the judgment may be revived by scire facias in the name of the next of kin of the decedent, to enable the next of kin to enforce collection of the judgment.