Legal help?

Question

My grandfather died about 2 weeks ago. His woman and he were not married until the day we found out there was no help for him, On that Day that woman went and filled her bride and groom copy of the marriage licence, my grandfather took the originals and no one know what he did with them. He had no will, and we have to go through probate court. The woman has already started selling his things. Is she legally allowed to do that? I thought that everyone had to wait until probate. At any rate the real question is: Can anyone tell me how we can go about filling to be the executive over his estate? My father is the most responsible of the siblings, so it has been decided that he will start the proceedures. We just don't know where to go from here. Any help will be apprciated.

Answer 1

Go immediately to the probate division of your local Superior Court. Thats where the probate side of the matter will be heard.
More important, obtain from the same court a restraining order to
prevent her from selling any more of his property until the estate can be probated. Under community property law, a married couple have joint ownership of all assets acquired during the marriage using community property, such as the wages of either
spouse. You don't say how long they were together before the
marriage, but community property law does recognize a concept called quasi marital property. This deals with property that would
be subject to this area of law, except for that the parties were not married.
As to property rights, his widow does have a right to all of her
separate property, as well as a percent of the community property, the size of which will depend on how many children he had. The law of intestate succession will control,since he had no will. I strongly urge you to have some relative appointed by the
court to execute the estate. Its a simple form, which you can get from the clerk of the court. Otherwise, the court will appoint an executor, and that type of appointment never goes well for the family.

Answer 2

The procedure really depends on the jurisdiction you're in. The Courthouse in the county where your grandfather died or where his assets were located would be able to get you started. Some jurisdictions have a simpler route to probate an estate if the estate is relatively small and not contested. This may not be applicable in your case.

At any rate, to become an executor, an interested party files a Petition with the applicable court. The Petition basically outlines who the proposed executor is, his relationship to the decedent, and who the interested parties are. The Petition also shows that notice has been given to the interested parties. At a hearing, if there are no objections to the nominee, and the nominee is someone fit to perform the role of an executor, that person is appointed. The executor will gather the assets of the estate, pay off creditors of the estate, distribute the leftover, and close the probate (provide the Court with a general accounting, including what the assets were and who got paid what) subject to the Court's approval.

That's a general overview. See a qualified attorney in your jurisdiction for the specifics.

Answer 3

Try the sites below, make sure to change the location/state in which this takes place. You will need an Attorney for this matter. Click the last link and watch the online movie presentation. If you have any questions, please contact me. I hope this helps.