Express Disinheritance of the Testator’s Sister Does Not Prevent the Sister’s Heirs From Taking by Intestacy

The testator’s will gave his entire estate to his mother and expressly left nothing to his half-sister. The mother predeceased the testator who was mother’s only descendant. The disinherited half-sister also predeceased the testator leaving two daughters who survived the testator. In In re Estate of Samuelson, 757 N.W.2d 44 (N.D. 2008), the court held that the will would have prevented the half-sister from taking both under the will and in intestacy but that her daughters took the entire estate by intestacy because the disinheritance of their mother did not extend to them as their mother’s descendants.