Legal Question in Administrative Law in California

Re: who is the survivor

This has the smell of a law school exam question, and we aren't supposed to answer such questions on LawGuru. Also, the question deals with wills and estates, not administrative law, which is the branch of law that deals with the operations of administrative agencies such as the public utilities commission and the zoning authority. Nevertheless, I'll take a shot at answering:

First, without the full text of the will, the term 'survivor' is potentially ambiguous, but it would probably be construed to mean 'living descendant' or 'living descendant of his body' (a blood descendant). So, the father's share would be distributed to the sons.

The fact that the father was married does not entitle the wife to a share; the father became unmarried when he died, and until the testator is also dead, the father had a 'mere' expectancy and not an interest in which his then wife might share.

The money does not fall into the residue category under any of the facts given.

If this is a real-life legal issue, it should be directed to an attorney who does wills and trusts for verification that my answer is correct after a chance to read the entire will.