With Dayo Benson
My late husband and I were happily married until an untimely death struck. The marriage was blessed with four children.

We got married at a registry and the union was also blessed in a church. However, before our marriage, my husband had a female child by a woman whom he was never married to. Before his death, he registered four of his property in the names of our four children. Similarly, he made me and our first  child, a male, his next of kin where he worked.

I’m aware that in his lifetime, he made provision for the female child he had before our marriage.

Like he did for our children, registered a property in her name.

My husband who suddenly died at the age of 50 was a second loss to his siblings and extended family  having lost his 56-year-old elder brother 48 days earlier. It was however a rude shock to me when his family began a desperate move to take over the property of a man they were supposed to be mourning. They have been going about it shamefully to the extent of using police to harass me.

Not only that, they are ganging up with the woman my late husband did not marry to fight me.

I guess their interest is two other property that belonged to my husband. They are even alleging that I was responsible for his death.

Already, our family lawyer has applied for a letter of administration because my husband did not leave any Will behind.

I want to know what the position of the law is on the issue and whether the family can make any claim over his property?

Stella, Benin-City.

Cases like this are rampant these days in which extended family members of a male deceased try to take over his estate without regard to the immediate family left behind. If the story is true as you narrated it, you have little or nothing to worry about.

To start with,  your late husband was probably not unmindful of the kind of extended family he had, so he took that step. What he did in his lifetime was to secure the interests of his children in case of the eventuality that occurred. And I must say he acted properly.

What he did by registering those property in the names of the children was one of the few ways a parent can share property to his or her off-springs without writing a Will. Some even prefer this to writing a Will. The houses registered in the children’s names have become their own both in law and equity. Another method is what is known as intervivour  gift, that is, a gift given while the parent is still alive.

This is usually backed up with a Deed of gift duly signed by the parent in the presence of a magistrate. There are one or two other ways of doing this which space would not allow us to discuss in this edition. These days, more people are embracing these other options rather than writing a Will which is usually a subject of controversy especially over its authenticity.

In the same vein, the law recognises the payment of entitlements to the next of kin of a deceased. So by making you and your first child his next of kin at his place of last employment, that aspect has also been taken care of. Whatever is left of his estate outside the ones mentioned will be administered in accordance with the provisions of intestacy law.

That is the only way the deceased dependants outside his or her nuclear family can benefit. For instance, aged parents, siblings and other close relations that the deceased was responsible for their upkeep. The child outside the marriage may also benefit depending on the provision of the intestacy law.

Note that this is purely a civil matter which does not in any way concern the police. I will advise that you don’t succumb to the attempt to intimidate you with the police. I’m sure your lawyer knows what to do in this regard. As long as there is no evidence directly that you have hands in your husband’s death, you having nothing to worry about.