CALIFORNIA FAMILY LAW
...Death of a Spouse
......Probate/Inheritance Rights
.........Intestate Succession
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Intestate succession rules.

Intestate estate not passing to surviving spouse.

Prob. Code §6452 does not bar illegitimate H's half siblings from sharing in his estate where father acknowledged paternity and paid support for 18 years.

Although unfair that F should reap financial windfall after death of son he never even saw, probate court may not, on principles of equity, disinherit natural parent who abandons child who later dies intestate.

F's admitting paternity, though grudgingly, on a number of occasions to a number of people, both orally and in writing, satisfied burden imposed by Prob.C 6453 (b)(2).

Children adopted away by stepparent may inherit from natural father where his estate lapsed; antilapse statute did not apply because spouse is not "kindred."

Summary of Law: Surviving spouse's rights if decedent fails to make new will after marriage.

Foster child can't succeed by intestate succession to foster parent's estate without legal barrier to adoption continuing until death.

Spouse who obtained judgment of legal separation did not qualify as surviving spouse for purposes of intestate succession.

Undivorced bigamous spouse, by false stmts on new marriage application and 38-yr. course of conduct, estopped from asserting inheritance rights as surviving spouse of intestate first wife.