Today I found out my mom’s husband passed away. She sent him divorce papers about three years ago, but he refused to sign them. We couldn’t properly resolve things, and we were genuinely afraid of contacting people he knew because he was a terrible person and we feared he might find out where we lived and hurt us. Now I’ve found out he got engaged to someone else this year, and his new partner had his baby a few months ago.
My questions are: If he never signed the divorce papers, were they still legally married? What happens to his will and assets? Could my mom inherit anything, even if he changed his will to leave everything to his new partner or baby?
They were married for 9-10 years. As far as I know, he didn’t own a house and was pretty broke, the only asset I remember was a car. I also don’t know if he had a will.
I heard North Carolina has a surviving spouse allowance. Could my mom qualify for that even if he left little or nothing behind? I’d appreciate any advice about what my mom should do next. Thank you.
Location: North Carolina
EDIT: I just got into an argument in the comments with someone about it. We had to quit our jobs and move to a completely different city with nothing just to escape him, so he got to keep everything. We let him live his life and didn’t tell anyone in his close circle why we disappeared, including his new fiancée, out of fear. (I don’t think she even knows he’s been married this whole time.) My mom was paying 75% of everything in their relationship. I couldn’t care less about his awful car. I just want to know if everything he’s bought since we moved away would be considered hers. If so we’ll let his family keep everything like his bum car.
Yes as awful as this sounds, I was curious to know if she gets any money. Also yes, I know it’s awful that we didn’t warn his new fiancée about what a terrible person he is, and I don’t know if we plan on telling her.