When the father died without a will, the daughter contended that her parents were separated and did not maintain a joint household in the last years of their lives, and therefore the mother is not entitled to half of his estate and should not be recognized as an heir.
The Court found that for purposes of inheritance the parents are deemed married and therefor the mother is entitled to part of the estate. The Israeli law of inheritance states that in the absence of a will, the heirs are the deceased spouse at the time of demised, as well as the children and their descendants. If a divorce is not arranged, the spouses should be deemed married under the Law of Inheritance and the nature and quality of the relationship between the married spouses is irrelevant, including in cases where they lived separately at the time of death. Here, the parents were indeed separated for several years before the father's demise, but the mother occasionally lived in the shared home and no divorce proceedings were conducted between them. The mother is therefore entitled to her share of the estate.