Under the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act, if decedent dies on July 1 and spouse dies on July 7 (more than five days later), to whom will the decedent’s intestate estate be distributed?

• A. The decedent’s sister
• B. The decedent’s husband
• C. The decedent’s brother
• D. The decedent’s wife

Answer: (C)

The key idea is how the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act handles two people dying at nearly the same time. If deaths occur within five days of each other, the law treats each as having survived the other for purposes of inheritance, so the survivor’s share isn’t determined by the other’s death. If the deaths are more than five days apart, the first decedent is treated as having died before the second, so the surviving spouse cannot take from the first person’s estate.

Here, the decedent dies on July 1 and the spouse dies on July 7, which is more than five days later. Because they’re outside that five-day window, the decedent’s intestate estate is distributed as if the spouse did not survive the decedent. The estate thus goes to the decedent’s own heirs, such as siblings, and among the options the brother is the appropriate heir.