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A Cinderella Story and its characters are property of Disney Studios
A Different Kind of Cinderella Story
In A Cinderella Story (2004) starring Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murry, eight-year-old Samantha Montgomery and her father, Hal, live in California and have a wonderful life running a sport’s themed diner. Hal marries Fiona, who has two daughters, but is shortly killed in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. As Hal has no will, Fiona receives all his property. Eight years later, Sam works as a waitress/slave at the diner in order to save money for college.
While this is a nice storyline for a Disney movie, the California Probate Code is a bit more complex than that. Luckily, the San Fernando earthquake that killed Hal occurred on January 17th, 1994, so we can use the new(er) California probate code that was updated in 1985. According to the CPC intestacy (no will) provisions, the surviving spouse would receive one-half of the community property, one-half of the quasi-community property, and one-half of the separate property.1 The other half would go to the surviving issue--in this case, Sam.2 Without getting into too much detail, community property is everything spouses own that they acquired after marriage and separate property is anything that a spouse owned before married. As Hal owned the house and diner before marrying Fiona, that at least would be separate property. Hal and Fiona were not married for long (less than two years), and therefore the amount of community property is insignificant in this analysis. Even though Hal didn’t leave a will, Sam would have had one-half of Hal’s separate property and likely enough to pay for college.
In a twist at the end of the movie, Sam finds her father’s long lost will that leaves her everything. Well, that’s nice Disney, but you can’t cut out a spouse completely. Fiona would not be an omitted spouse (accidentally forgotten) because she signed the will as a witness, so it was clear that she was being excluded from the will. However, in California, a surviving spouse who has been excluded purposefully from the decedent’s will can elect to take her share of the community property.
So what would this have looked like if the will had been carried out upon the father's death? As Fiona had the right to an elected share of the community property, Fiona and Sam would have split the community property. Fiona would likely have gotten the guardianship of Sam, but the court would have appointed someone to take care of Sam's share of Hal’s estate. As "Hal's Diner" was going to decline in value without Hal, the conservator would move for the court to approve the sale of Hal's Diner so that the current value could be conserved for Sam. Sam would have had enough money saved away for college and would not have had to be a slave for her step-mother. Which would have made for a less interesting movie.
By Kelsey Brunette