Estate of Warner

Adam Warner having died intestate, a contest over the right to act as administrator of his estate arose between Katie Warner, his widow, and Adam J. Warner, his son. The superior court made an order granting letters of administration to the son, and the widow appeals from the order, and from an order denying her motion for a new trial.

Where the surviving wife is entitled to succeed to some portion of the personal estate, she has a preferential right to letters. (Code Civ. Proc., sec. 1365.) The right of the widow in this case was disputed on the ground that she had, by an ante-nuptial agreement, surrendered her right of succession to any part of Adam Warner’s estate. The agreement in question was in writing. .It provided that, in consideration of the covenants to be performed on the part of the appellant (then Mrs. Heidt) Warner agreed to care for, keep, maintain, and support her and her minor child, and to properly educate said child, so long as the said appellant should be a good, faithful, and dutiful wife to him, and also tó pay her one hundred dollars per annum, and that, at his death she should “receive from his estate, without any administration, the sum of one thousand…