V.I. Code tit. 15, § 84 (2019)
2019 US Virgin Islands Code|Title 15 - Decedents' Estates and Fiduciary Relations|Part I - Decedents' Estates|Chapter 3 - Descent and Distribution|§ 84. Descent and distribution of estate of decedent

 The real property of a deceased person, male or female, not devised, shall descend, and the surplus of his or her personal property, after payment of debts and legacies, and if not bequeathed, shall be distributed to the surviving spouses, children, or next of kin or other persons, in manner following: (1) One-third to the surviving spouse, and the residue in equal portions to the children, and such persons as legally represent the children if any of them have died before the deceased. (2) If the deceased leaves a surviving spouse and both parents surviving, and no child or descendant, the surviving spouse shall take five thousand dollars and one-half of the residue, and the parents shall each take one-half of the balance; if there be no surviving spouse, the parents shall each take one-half of the whole. (3) If the deceased leaves one parent surviving, and no child or descendant, and a surviving spouse, the surviving spouse shall take five thousand dollars and one-half of the residue, and the surviving parent shall take the balance; if there be no surviving spouse, the surviving parent shall take the whole. (4) If the deceased leaves a surviving spouse, and no descendant, parent, brother or sister, nephew or niece, the surviving spouse shall be entitled to the whole thereof; but if there be a brother or sister, nephew or niece, and no descendant or parent, the surviving spouse shall take ten thousand dollars and one-half of the residue, and the balance shall descend and be distributed to the brothers and sisters and their representatives. (5) If there be no surviving spouse, the whole thereof shall descend and be distributed equally to and among the children, and such as legally represent them. (6) If there be no surviving spouse, and no children, and no representatives of a child, and no parent, the whole shall descend and be distributed to the next of kin in equal degrees to the deceased; and if all the brothers and sisters of the intestate be living, the whole shall descend and be distributed to them; if any of them be living and any be dead, per stirpes to the brothers and sisters living, and the descendants in whatever degree of those dead; so that to each living brother or sister shall descend or be distributed such shares as would have descended or been distributed to him or her if all the brothers and sisters of the intestate who shall have died leaving issue had been living, and so that there shall be distributed to such descendants in whatever degree, collectively, the share which their parent would have received if living; and the same rule shall prevail as to all direct lineal descendants of every brother and sister of the intestate whenever such descendants are of unequal degrees. (7) If the deceased was illegitimate and leaves a mother, and no child, or descendant, and no surviving spouse, such mother shall take the whole and shall be entitled to letters of administration in exclusion of all other persons. If the deceased shall leave a surviving spouse, the surviving spouse shall take five thousand dollars and one-half of the residue, and the mother shall take the balance. If the mother of such deceased be dead, the relatives of the deceased on the part of the mother shall take in the same manner as if the deceased had been legitimate, and be entitled to letters of administration in the same order. (8) Where the distributees of the deceased, entitled to share in his estate, are all in equal degree to the deceased, their shares shall be equal. (9) When such distributees are of unequal degrees of kindred, the whole shall descend and shall be distributed to those entitled thereto, according to their respective stocks; so that those who take in their own right shall receive equal shares, and those who take by representation shall receive the share to which the parent whom they represent, if living, would have been entitled. (10) No representation shall be admitted among collaterals after brothers' and sisters' descendants. (11) Relatives of the half-blood shall take equally with those of the whole blood in the same degree; and the representatives of such relatives shall take in the same manner as the representatives of the whole blood. (12) Descendants and other distributees of the deceased, begotten before his death, but born thereafter, shall take in the same manner as if they had been born in the lifetime of the deceased, and had survived him. (13) An illegitimate child shall be considered to have the same status, for the purpose of the descent and distribution of the property of his or her ancestors, as if he or she were born in lawful wedlock provided that in cases where the ancestor in question is a father, he admitted of record paternity of such child by signing the official birth certificate; or he was adjudged the father of such child by a court of competent jurisdiction; or by written acknowledgment he recognized such child as his. (14) The right of an adopted child to take a share of the estate and the right of succession to the estate of an adopted child shall continue as provided in Title 16.