MARQUETTE, Mich. (AP) - A woman can inherit assets from her late spouse, even if they lived apart for more than a year and he died while their divorce was pending in the Upper Peninsula, the Michigan appeals court said.
The court said Anne Jones-Von Greiff shouldn't be penalized by lengthy divorce proceedings, including a period when a judge had to correct a written order.
Hermann Von Greiff died in June 2018, three weeks after a Marquette County judge had approved spousal support in the divorce case. But the judge had made a significant error in the order, which wasn't fixed until after Hermann had died.
"Hermann's untimely death abated the divorce, but Anne's participation in a legal divorce process, regardless of its length, did not disqualify her from survivorship status," judges Elizabeth Gleicher and Jane Markey said last Thursday.
In a dissent, Judge Michael Kelly said there should be no wiggle room for the appeals court, noting that someone who willfully lives apart for a year can't be a "surviving spouse" under Michigan estate law.
"It is not the place of the judiciary to rewrite the plain language of this or any other statute enacted by the Legislature," Kelly said.
Published: Wed, Apr 29, 2020
