9.3 Others' Rights in Inheritance

The estate is not simply the heirs' — others hold claims against and within it: The creditors of the deceased: the estate's debts paid first — the creditors' claims outranking the heirs' shares (the estate-first rule; the heirs take what remains); The dependants' maintenance: the widow's and minor children's maintenance from the estate — the dependants protected in the administration (the antya-costs and family- maintenance charges); The will's legatees: the testamentary gifts (the legacies) charged on the estate — within the compulsory-share limits (the protected heirs' reserved fractions first); The co-owner's and coparcener's claims: the joint property's other holders' shares separated before the estate's distribution (the deceased's share alone passes — Unit 8's coparcenary crystallization); The marital-property claim: the surviving spouse's own half (the marriage-acquired property, Unit 4) is the spouse's own — NOT inherited; only the deceased's separate estate devolves by inheritance (the distinction students miss); The unborn's inchoate share — protected pending birth; The State's escheat-right — last in order, first in certainty where no heir exists.