[Defiant]

How does community property pass in CA, as a general rule?

Community property means that all income earned within the marriage is owned equally by the spouses, and all property bought with CP funds is also CP. There is a presumption that property owned by a married person is CP, but that can be overcome by a showing that it was owned before the marriage, or given to a spouse by someone as their separate property (like an inheritance).

When a married person dies without a will, their property (which is a 1/2 interest in their community property) passes to their heirs. When a married person dies childless, their only heir is their spouse, and all the CP would therefore pass to the spouse.

If Scott becomes ineligible to inherit from Laci because he is proven to have killed her, then the succession would go to Laci's parents, then her siblings, and then you get into cousins, uncles, etc.

Police are immune from suit for most things, but I think you could get to a jury on a cop intentionally allowing a person to rob another person.

[Devil_Anse]

Thanks! I almost missed your post, since I'm at least one thread behind. So Scott is the heir of all that they acquired during their marriage through community funds. BUT--try this on for size--the house doesn't go to him through inheritance, right, but b/c he is the survivor of the joint tenancy with right of survivorship? Doesn't matter too much, since the result is the same, except that he became the owner of her house on her death--a quick and probate-less acquisition.

I have never heard that Laci had a will. I am assuming that she didn't.

As for Laci's vehicle, which Scott has already sold, I guess that was a community asset. I heard that its title was held in Scott's name--although of course whose name was on the title is sometimes only part of the story of who owns it.

So I guess in the end Scott will get only what he already owned, when the assets are liquidated, and will get nothing that was Laci's.