My parents died together in the same accident and no one can tell who died first — how does that affect who inherits from whom?

The presumption, and what it does

If there is a doubt, as between two or more persons who are called to succeed each other, as to which of them died first, whoever alleges the death of one prior to the other, shall prove the same; in the absence of proof, it is presumed that they died at the same time and there shall be no transmission of rights from one to the other. The presumption is of simultaneity, not of survivorship, and its effect is stated in the same breath: no transmission. Neither parent inherits from the other, and neither estate is enlarged by the other's property before being distributed.

Why the order of death would have mattered

Article 777 provides that The rights to the succession are transmitted from the moment of the death of the decedent. and Article 1025 requires that the heir, devisee or legatee must be living at the moment the succession opens. Put together, a parent who survived the other by even a short interval would have inherited a share, which would then have formed part of his or her own estate and passed on again to that parent's own heirs. Where the two sets of heirs are not identical — a child of an earlier marriage, a surviving parent on one side only — the order of death changes the outcome materially, which is why the question is worth asking rather than assuming.

Who must prove what

The burden falls on whoever asserts an order, and it applies to each assertion separately: whoever alleges the death of one prior to the other, shall prove the same. It is not enough to argue that one parent was likelier to have survived, or to reason from where each was seated or how each was injured. The material that decides these cases is documentary and clinical — the times recorded on the death certificates, autopsy or medico-legal findings, the incident report and the times noted by responders, and the accounts of anyone who saw either of them alive after the event. Absent that, the presumption applies and there is nothing further to litigate.

How the two estates are settled

Each is settled on its own, as though the other spouse had not survived. The couple's property regime is liquidated first, so that each estate consists of that parent's own share and separate property, and each is then distributed to that parent's heirs, subject to its debts. Who takes and in what proportion depends on which relatives survived each parent, applied to the real family tree. Until the heirs divide, Article 1078 holds each estate in common among them subject to the payment of debts, so the practical first step is two inventories, not one.

Related provisions

• Civil Code, Article 43 — Presumption on Simultaneous Death
• Civil Code, Article 777 — Succession Opens at the Moment of Death
• Civil Code, Article 1025 — The Heir Must Be Living at the Opening
• Civil Code, Article 1078 — Co-Ownership Before Partition