Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
My biological father died recently with a will devising everything to my half-brother and half-sister. I was adopted when I was a child, but I qualify for the "exceptions" part of the California Probate Code for not being disinherited in California from the adoption. Namely, I lived with my father in a father son relationship for the first few years of my life, AND I was adopted by the spouse of my mother (my stepfather had already married my mother prior to adopting me.) Thus, I was still an heir to his estate, and I was wondering about California Disinheritance Laws because I wasn't sure whether he simply figured I was no longer an heir since I had been adopted and thus didn't worry about disinheriting me.
My questions are: Does the will have to explicitly mention that an heir gets nothing in order to disinherit them? For instance, in my case as I previously stated my father left everything to his other two children, but made no mention of me in the will at all, so I wasn't sure if I could challenge my disinheritance because I have read that in some states a will MUST explicitly say "to my son John Doe I leave nothing", in order to disinherit that heir.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Hello, the general rule is that if you were already in existence and known to him at the time he made the will then you have nothing left to you - he does not have to specifically disinherit you. The rationale is that he knew you were alive so you could not have been omitted due to your status as an unknown child. Additionally being adopted by another father would mean he gave up all his rights as your biological father - so he had to legally give up your status as his legal son for you to be adopted by your step-father. As you cant have two legal fathers and he knew you existed and did not provide anything for you in his will means you are out of luck. You have no claim based on family relationship - he would have had to have just left you something like any other unrelated person. You have no legal standing whatsoever if he signed away his parental rights and you were adopted by another father.
The adoption statute you are reading has to do with the fact that an adopted child is treated exactly the same as a biological child so if there is a will or trust that indicates "I leave all my estate to my 2 children" BUT there were actually 3 and the 3rd was an adopted child and there was no specific disinheritence clause regarding the adopted child - THEN that adopted child would be able to challange the will for mistake or error.
The ONLY thing you could look into is if you have informationthat he meant to leave you something and it was ommitted or the will was made prior to your being adopted or he did not know you existed.
There is no specific law that state you must specifically disinherit a potential heir, but from what you have said you are ot a potential hier at any rate.
Sorry
Best Wishes
Marcia
You were adopted, and are not his heir anymore. The father that adopted you is your father for all intents and purposes. I think you misread the statute that you claim gives you an exception (which you do not identify). I agree with Ms. Wertenberger's analysis.
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