Estate of McCoy

This is an appeal from an order denying appellant’s petition for a family allowance. The admitted facts are as follows:

Appellant and Thomas E. McCoy, now deceased, were husband and wife. They had no children. Appellant had procured an interlocutory decree of divorce under a complaint charging him with extreme cruelty. Prior to the rendition of said decree appellant and deceased executed a property settlement agreement the terms of which, so far as material here, are as follows:

During the interlocutory period appellant’s husband died.

Appellant expects to receive about $6,000 from a policy of insurance on the decedent’s life. By the property settlement agreement decedent had a right to change the beneficiary of this policy which he did not do. When appellant and decedent were living together he earned approximately $200 a month, all of which was consumed in living expenses. Since her husband’s death appellant worked two weeks, found it too strenuous, and had to stop. Appellant has no separate income.

The right to a family allowance is covered by section 680 of the Probate Code, which is based on the former section 1466 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and which reads as…