When a married couple acquires property during their marriage, there is a presumption that the acquired property is "community property." Family Code §760. This is known as the community presumption. If the acquired property is in fact community property, then each spouse owns a 50% interest in the property.
If a spouse passes away without a will, the deceased spouse's share of the community property, 50%, passes to the surviving spouse. Probate Code §6401. The surviving spouse thereby owns 100% of the community property following the deceased spouse's passing.
A recent unpublished appellate opinion focused on the issue of a surviving spouse claiming a community property interest in her late husband's estate.
"Maria Avina's husband, Jesus Enrique Avina, died without a will. Jesus allegedly left behind his property interest in A & A: Grove Service & Produce (A & A), a company he and Maria built together during their marriage. After his death, Maria brought a spousal property petition seeking a determination that her one-half community property interest in A & A belonged to her, and Jesus's one-half interest in A & A passed to her as the surviving spouse.
Two of the couple's children, Marco Antonio Avina and Marcial Avina, objected to Maria's petition. They asserted the property interest identified by Maria in her petition did not exist, and that ownership rights in A & A were the subject of a civil action for declaratory relief they had filed against Maria. The probate court continued resolution of Maria's petition for more than two years awaiting resolution of the civil action and, when the civil action was dismissed, the probate court granted Maria's petition. It found that Marco and Marcial lacked a "probate interest" because Jesus died intestate, and all interests owned by Jesus that are community property passed to Maria as the surviving spouse."
Avina v. Avina, San Diego County Superior Court case # 37-2019-00063638-PR-SP-CTL
The trial court's decision was upheld on appeal.
The crux of the children's argument was that they lacked standing to object to their mother receiving their father's community property interest in the family business. Only the surviving spouse, i.e. the mother, could inherit the deceased spouse's community property in light of Probate Code §6401.
Alternatively stated, assume that the community property was an apple (just go with me). The deceased spouse's separate property, essentially non-community property, was an orange. The children had standing to object to the orange's distribution because the children would inherit a portion of the orange. Probate Code §6402. However, the children could not object to the apple’s distribution because under no circumstance would the children inherit the apple. Probate Code §6401.
One can see the rationale for excluding an individual from litigating an estate matter in which they will not benefit financially regardless of the conclusion. That is, limiting standing to only interested persons promotes judicial efficiency. Otherwise random people could intervene in estate matters for a myriad of reasons and delay the case's resolution.
