Dominican inheritance laws?

[Jveras15]

My father past away in August 2001 and didn’t leave a will. At the moment we are nine brothers and sister all from different mothers. Unfortunately we have a situation in which the widow wants to claim 50% of everything our father owned; before and after marriage, while us the brother out the other 50% we have to break it down into 10% of that since we are 9 brothers and sister. Our father only bought two properties while being with her wife. Everything else papi owned was before he was married. Two year after papi death, the widow started selling our properties without any of the son knowing about it. I guess since we gave the lawyer the power to represent both parties that they can just sell everything. Nothing was said back then primarily because all the brothers and sisters were not united and almost everyone being a minor we didn't have an understanding of what was actually going on. At the moment we are just looking for information and I hope I can find it in this Forum in which we can built a case against the widow and stop her from continuing to get 50% of the properties that were bought before marriage. Please note that none of the properties that were bought before or after marriage does not have the widow name. Also, is it possible to recover what's already been sold? If not there are two remaining property that our father bought while being with her can the judge rule in our side and we keep the 100% of the properties since bad ethics was originally use against us? We Are also committed to finding a new Attorney that will represent and can first demonstrate that the laws are on our side, before taking this court. Any help in this matter highly appreciated.

[AnnaC]

I'm going to move this to the legal forum. This thread might help answer some questions

[Fabio J. Guzman]

First, you should retain an attorney immediately before the surviving spouse hides or disposes of the remaining assets.

Real estate properties acquired before marriage are not part of the matrimonial community and therefore the surviving spouse has no claim on them.

"Movable" properties acquired before marriage (money, shares in corporations, furniture, etc.), however, DO BECOME PART of the matrimonial community by law and thus the surviving spouse DOES have the right to 50%.