Chapter III: Heirs.

If the predeceased spouse leaves children or descendants, the surviving spouse receives, at his or her option, the usufruct of the whole of the existing property or ownership of a quarter of the property where all the children are descended from both spouses and ownership of a quarter where there are one or more children who are not descended from both spouses.

If, in the absence of children or descendants, the deceased leaves his father and mother, the surviving spouse receives half of the property. The other half devolves one quarter to the father and one quarter to the mother. When the father or mother is predeceased, the share that would have fallen to them falls to the surviving spouse.

In the absence of children or descendants of the deceased and his or her father and mother, the surviving spouse receives the entire estate.

By way of derogation from article 757-2, in the event of the predecease of the father and mother, the property which the deceased had received from his ascendants by succession or gift and which is included in kind in the succession shall, in the absence of descendants, devolve half to the brothers and sisters of the deceased or to their descendants, themselves descendants of the predeceased parent or parents at…

When the surviving spouse receives all or three quarters of the property, the ascendants of the deceased, other than the father and mother, who are in need benefit from a claim for maintenance against the estate of the predeceased. The time limit for claiming this is one year from the date of death or the date on which the heirs cease to pay the benefits they previously provided to the…

Where the spouse has the choice of ownership or usufruct, his or her rights are non-transferable until he or she has exercised his or her option.

The spouse’s option between usufruct and ownership is proven by any means.

Any heir may invite the spouse in writing to exercise his or her option. In the absence of a written decision within three months, the spouse is deemed to have opted for the usufruct.

The spouse is deemed to have opted for the usufruct if he or she dies without having taken part.

The calculation of the spouse’s full ownership right provided for in articles 757 and 757-1 will be made on a mass made up of all the property existing at the death of her husband to which will be fictitiously joined those which he may have disposed of, either by inter vivos deed or by testamentary deed, in favour of successors, without dispensation of report. The spouse may only exercise his…