Divorce automatically revokes any bequests made to the former spouse.
Although some obligations that come with marriage can last a lifetime, some rights expire with the pronouncement of divorce.
In 1974, a spouse bequeaths all their belongings to their wife through a will. Five years pass, and the couple gets divorced. Seventeen years later, the spouse dies without revoking their will.
As a sign of a united family, the ex-wife and her children turn to the Superior Court* to settle the following question: who will inherit the deceased's estate, the ex-wife or the children? The children claim that following the reform of the Civil Code, the bequest made to the spouse prior to the divorce is revoked. The wife maintains that the legal situation crystallized at the time of the divorce and that the modifications to the Civil Code do not have a retroactive effect.
Judge Pierrette Rayle rules in favor of the children and states that divorce automatically revokes bequests made to the spouse prior to the divorce unless the testator has, through testamentary provisions, expressed the intention to continue favoring the spouse despite this possibility. It is up to the heiress "under the threatened will of revocation, to prove that through their testamentary provisions, the deceased would have expressed their intention to continue favoring them despite the possibility of divorce."
Many people think they are worth more dead than alive! Perhaps now their ex-spouses will have a different opinion.
* C.S. 500-05-039740-988, 12-05-1998
