Court Opinion

ID: 9577065
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:31:23.886795+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:19:54.016033
License: Public Domain

TRAYNOR, J.,.
Dissenting.— I dissent from that part of the opinion upholding the charging of the debts, expenses of administration, and the family allowance against the respective persons interested in the estate in the proportion that each shared in the estate.
Probate Code section 201 provides: “Upon the death of either husband or wife, one half of the community property belongs to the surviving spouse; the other half is subject to the testamentary disposition of the decedent, and in the absence thereof goes to the surviving spouse.” Respondent, testator’s widow, after renouncing her right to take under the will, succeeded to one-half of all the community property as a matter of right under the above section. She was given all of the Peterich Ranch, which was community property, on the basis of the above section, because her husband, the testator, had failed to make an effective testamentary disposition of his half.
The court charged the debts of the testator and the expenses of administration, including a family allowance to the widow, against the respective persons interested in the estate in the proportion that they shared in the estate. Probate Code section 750 provides: “If the testator makes provision by his will, or designates the estate to be appropriated, for the payment of his debts, the expenses of administration, or family allowance, they must be paid according to such provision out of the estate thus appropriated, so far as the same is sufficient. If insufficient, that portion of the estate not disposed of by the will, if any, must be appropriated for that purpose.” (Italics added.) The testator did not designate in his will any particular portion of the estate to be used for the payment of his debts, administration expenses, and family allowance. Therefore, under section 750, that portion of the estate not disposed of by will should be resorted to for the payment of these amounts before other portions of the estate are assessed. Since one-half the community property automatically passes to the surviving wife upon the husband’s death he has no power to dispose of it by will, and it therefore does not constitute a portion of his estate within the *367meaning of section 750. Although it is subject to his debts and administration expenses by virtue of Probate Code section 202, it cannot be first resorted to under section 750. (Estate of Haselbud, 26 Cal. App. (2d) 375 [79 Pac. (2d) 443].) The testator, however, has the power to dispose of the other half of the community property by will. If he does not do so, it must be considered a portion of his estate not disposed of by will within the meaning of section 750. If he fails to dispose of it by will, it passes to his wife under section 201, but in this respect it does not differ materially from separate property of which he makes no testamentary disposition. When he does not dispose of some of his separate property by will, it passes to his wife, his wife and children, or to other heirs, according to the laws of intestate succession. The latter half of section 201 simply fixes the intestate succession to the deceased spouse’s half of the community property. Thus, if a testator does not dispose of his half of the community property by will it constitutes property not disposed of by will within the meaning of section 750 and must be resorted to first for the payment of debts and administration expenses, if no property is specifically appropriated for this purpose, just as if it were separate property undisposed of by will.
Estate of Haselbud, supra, is distinguishable from the present situation. In that case the decedent married after he made his will. His widow was therefore a pretermitted heir; under Probate Code section 70 the will was revoked as to her and she was entitled to her intestate share of the estate. Since section 750 has no application to the estates of persons dying completely intestate, the court, in order to insure the wife’s receiving the share of the estate that she would receive if the husband died completely intestate, properly held that the property which the wife took as her intestate share of the estate, including all of the community property, should not be resorted to first for the payment of debts and expenses under section 750, but should be charged for the debts and expenses on the same basis that it would be charged if the husband died completely intestate. In the present case, however, the respondent’s renunciation of her right to take under the will does not entitle her to an intestate share of the estate, but merely gives her the right to take her half of the community property free from the testamentary disposition *368made of it by the testator. She takes the other half of the Peterich Ranch, not on the theory that her husband died intestate but because after her renunciation it remained undisposed of by will.
In the present case, therefore, one-half of the Peterich Ranch constitutes property undisposed of by the will- of the testator and, under section 750, should be resorted to for the payment of debts, administration expenses, and the family allowance, before other portions of the estate are charged.
Gibson, C. 3., concurred.