Question

O and W, each of whom is married, purchase a parcel of investment property as jointtenants in a state in which survivorship is presumed among joint tenants. Title is taken inthis manner. This is not a community property state.A. Upon the death of either tenant, who would acquire the interest of the deceased tenant? Could this be defeated by will?B.What rights, if any, would a widow of the deceased tenant have in the property?

no the i vestment is not in india

Answer 1

A) Right of survivorship is commonly used in joint ownership or tenancy of property which means in case of death of other owners the surviving owner will automatically absorb share or deceased partner. Where there is more than two partner this will continue till there is only one owner remains and ultimately that person would own complete property and can do anything with it as its will. This is generally done to prevent ownership of property amongst the group of owners for longer time period and this ensures equal distribution of property.
Generally, property covered under the right of survivorship is not covered under a will because it is not subject to inclusion under survivorship. However in the case where the right of survivorship is lost only when their remains sole owner then it can be part of the will provided allowed by state laws. Also if the property is part of will but the right to survivorship is active then it will be distributed as per survivorship.

B) Here it is not clear that O and W are married to each other or with someone else. Assuming they are not couple then-wife of deceased partner do not have any right in the property as they do not automatically qualify to be owner property is entirely belongs to sole survivor and it is up to them if they want to give same right of ownership to the wife of other partners who have died.
In case they are couple then the wife will have full right of ownership.