Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
Inheritence Rights of Adopted Children
My mother passed away in 2002 and she has 7 children. She did not leave a will and we are in the middle of probate. My brother had pre-deceased her (3 years ago). We knew he had a daughter, but didn't know where she was. We have since found her in Pennsylvania and also another daughter(#2) none of the siblings knew of. #2 was given up for adoption at 2 months old. She is now 28. The daughter we all knew of is 25, grew up with the mother in PA.
The mother remarried and the daughter was legally adopted by the step father.
My brother lived a transient 'life style', had no real possessions and was the victim of a homicide. Since he and none of us, not even our mother, had any communications with the daughter and my brother had no assets, we never pursued finding the the one daughter we knew of. But since we mentioned to our lawyer that we knew he had one child and that she might be in PA, he requested we try to find her.
Both of these girls had been legally adopted as infants. Do either of them have any legal right to what would be my deceased brother's 1/7th of our mother's estate?
Respectfully submitted. Thank you for your time.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: Inheritence Rights of Adopted Children
Quite possibly the 2 kids would share your deceased brother's 1/7 share... depending on if they were full adoptions or a step-parent adoptions. If a step-parent adoption then the kids would likely get their dad's share of the estate. If you need an attorney please contact me!
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