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Father Died Intestate

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Mommycat

Junior Member
What is the name of your state?I live in Texas, but my father died in Louisiana.

Here's my situation:

I currently live in Texas, and my father just died intestate in Louisiana. He had been separated from his wife (my stepmother) for about two years, and my father had just recently moved about 250 miles away from her. Prior to his move, they had lived in the same city, but in separate dwellings due to a lot of circumstances that I would rather not go into here. Anyways, although they have been residing in separate places for the past two years, it's my understanding that Louisiana law states that they should have filed in a court for legal separation-which they never did. Is this true? Also, she's stating now that she gets everything in his apartment and I get nothing-which, honestly wasn't much. I have been reading into community and separate property laws for the state of Louisiana, as well as what the law dictates what should happen in situations such as mine, and, from what I understand, she actually would get usufruct of his property until she remarries or dies. Who is right-her or me? Another part of this is that she is claiming that she is the beneficiary on his IRA from his previous place of employment. I found the paperwork amongst his things, and although it does list her as the benefiary, it also shows that he took all of the money out and accounted it as their income for the year of 2005 which leads me to believe that there is really nothing for her or I to fight about. Honestly, when he died, he barely had a bed to sleep in, much less anything else. The most valuable thing that he had was his pick-up truck, which my family and I have been begging her to come and get if she really wants it that badly. My family and I can't quite figure out why she is acting like she is going to sick her lawyer on me when we feel there is really not alot to fight about here. My question (sorry it took so long for me to get to it!) is- should I go ahead and try and contact a lawyer in Louisiana for an estate that really doesn't have much to fight over? Or should I wait to see what her next move is legally?

Thank you so much for reading through my long-windedness, and answering my question! I really appreciate it!!!
 


seniorjudge

Senior Member
Q: My question (sorry it took so long for me to get to it!) is- should I go ahead and try and contact a lawyer in Louisiana for an estate that really doesn't have much to fight over?

A: For what purpose?
 

Mommycat

Junior Member
LOL-That's what I thought, but I just wanted to pick someone's brain here to make sure! Thank you so much for your reply!
 

Mommycat

Junior Member
Sorry, it's me and I am back to pick a little more (if I may). So, my stepmother has thrown a whole new monkey wrench into this whole thing by letting my father's body sit in a funeral home and not signing the paper work in order to have him cremated.

First, her reason was that she couldn't pay for him to be cremated. Now, that my grandfather is stepping up to pay for it (sans the storage fees that her delinquency on the whole matter have caused), she says that she thinks that my father was murdered and she's "not destroying evidence".

What happened when my father was found dead was this:
My father's best friend came over to my father's apartment because it had been a day since he had heard from my father-which is highly unusual for my father to do. His best friend came over to my father's apartment to check in and see how he was doing. He knocked repeatedly on my father's door without any response. He then walked around to the back window and saw my father laying in bed. His best friend called 911 at that moment. The police came and broke down the door to get to my father. The police inspected everything in my father's apartment and determined that there was no foul play or forced sign of entry. At which point they let the coroner's office take over. The coroner's office has conducted a autopsy done by their medical examiner. The report for that is going to take 6-18 weeks to get back in order to complete the final death certificate.

In the mean time, the coroner's office let me sign for his personal affects as well as to have him transported to a funeral home here in Texas-because my stepmother took too long and made empty promises to do such. That funeral home has been waiting on her to sign the appropriate paperwork in order to take care of this whole matter. But now she wants to wait on the official death certificate so that she "knows in her heart that her dear husband wasn't murdered". (BTW-they've been separated for about 2 years now.:rolleyes:) As you can tell-we're dealing with someone who isn't exactly playing with a full deck here. I spoke with the funeral home this morning and basically pleaded with them to let me or someone else from my family take over from here so that my father isn't left sitting there for 6-18 weeks. They told me that they were going to get their Reverend to call me back. So, what else can my family and I do? The lady at the funeral home stated to me that the police and the medical examiner should have gotten all the "evidence" that they needed so that shouldn't be a reason to hold this process up any further. Anybody here have any ideas?
 

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