3.5.3 Surviving Spouse

If the deceased does not leave descendants, parents, or siblings (or descendants from them), a surviving spouse, if not judicially separated, succeeds to the deceased’s separate property to the exclusion of other ascendants and collaterals.1

A “judicially separated” but not divorced spouse is rare. Under La. C.C. art. 2374, a spouse may obtain a Judgment of Separation of Property for specific reasons. For example, when a Petition for Divorce has been filed, either spouse may obtain a Judgment of Separation of Property by a rule to show cause and upon proof that the spouses have lived separate and apart without reconciliation for thirty days from the date of the filing of the Petition for Divorce.2  However, should the spouses reconcile, the community regime is re-established (the same effect as a reconciliation after a judgment of separation from bed and board).3  A spouse can also obtain a Judgment of Separation of Property if the spouses have lived separate and apart continuously for a period of six months.4

• 1La. C.C. art. 894.
• 2La. C.C. art. 2374(C).
• 3La. C.C. art. 2375(B).
• 4La. C.C. art. 2374(D).