Recently my father-in-law’s wife (of 25 years) dies of natural causes. Then 5 days later my father-n-law dies in a house fire that he and his wife both owned.
No will for either deceased party and both parties have kids. (Father-in-law had 4 kids and his wife had 2 kids.)
Shouldn’t the house (community party in Texas) be split amongst all the surviving heirs? My sister-in-law is trying to fight her brothers and states that since the father-n-law died last that the house proceeds should ONLY go to the father-n-laws family and not the step moms family.
I feel this is incorrect but darn trying to figure this out is tough. Trying not to have to go through court since everything else had PODs or beneficiaries and has already been split up.
This is not legal advice but only my opinion. Rely upon it at your own risk.
You need to go online and find out what the laws for “intestate succession” are in the state where the property is situated. Normally after a spouse you will have either children or siblings taking a portion of the estate.
In a case where the property was apparently communal, but the children are from other marriages, I don’t know how that works. If they were minors when the marriage was executed, my guess is that they would be treated as if they were naturally born of both parents. But I have nothing to base that on except the suspicion that the marriage would be regarded as a tacit adoption of the other spouse’s children. Adult children might be treated the same but I don’t know. There should be something in the language of the statute though - hopefully.
Property that cannot be divided equally (like real property) has to be sold and the proceeds divided. I had to do that several years ago with a few hundred acres of land. It sort of sucks if the market isn’t very good. I would try to post pone that as much as possible given current conditions.
The part about the father dying last has some truth to it, but most states have something like a simultaneous death act which states under what conditions 2 spouses dying separately will be considered to have died at the same time. I think the limit is 3 days though. Again, you need to find the statute and see what it says. Most county courthouses will have a law library open to the public. They will have the annotated versions of the statues which give you the case law interpreting them. That information can be invaluable.
For a good overview of both statutes (intestate succession and simultaneous death act), find the library’s copy of CJS (Corpus Jurus Secondum - although it’s been so long they might be on the 3 edition by now - don’t know). Most of the pages will at least 1/3 to 1/2 footnotes, but don’t let that bother you. Just concentrate on the main text.
This is a question best posed to a Texas lawyer, who can advise on local law regarding intestate succession, and how the facts in this particular instance would work within those laws.
Is this an exam question or something? The “five days” means that you end up hitting Section 47 of the Texas Probate Code right on the nose. That section requires (in general) that, if one spouse did not survive the other by 120 hours (five days), then essentially each spouse is deemed to have predeceased the other, and you basically end up distributing half of the community property as though the wife had survived, and the other half as though the husband survived.
Assuming that this isn’t an exam question, you really need your own attorney to help you navigate these tortured waters, because the times of death complicate things. If it IS an exam question, shame on you for looking for answers on a message board.
Hopefully it’s not an exam question (although I guess that would mean OP’s parents died), because OP’s writing is not an example of clarity and precision.