In inheritance disputes, can heirs claim to divide the estate more on the grounds of living together and bearing more maintenance obligations? Recently, the People's Court of Wuping County, Fujian Province, concluded a dispute over inheritance of property. The court ruled that heirs who live together and have fulfilled their main maintenance obligations can inherit more according to law. In 1973, Lan and Zhong's married child Xiaolan was born. After their divorce, Lan and Wang lived together and raised Xiaolan together. In 2015, Lan and Wang applied for marriage registration. After divorcing, Zhong married Lin and had two children. In 2020, Lan passed away. In 2022, Xiaolan passed away without getting married, having children, or adopting any children. Not long after, Zhong also passed away. Xiaolan had a house, a motorcycle, and over 160000 yuan in bank deposits before her death. Wang spent over 30000 yuan to handle the funeral arrangements for Xiaolan. In September 2023, Lin and others sued Wang in court, demanding the lawful division of Xiaolan's estate. After trial, the court held that inheritance begins from the death of the deceased. Xiaolan did not make a will or a legacy or a legacy support agreement before her death, and should be treated as a statutory inheritance. From a temporal perspective, Lan and Wang have been living together as husband and wife since 1978, jointly raising Xiaolan, and should be treated as a de facto marriage. As a result, Wang and Xiaolan formed a stepmother son relationship with a supportive relationship. Xiaolan was born in 1973, and the son of Zhong and Lin was born in 1975. It can be inferred that Zhong remarried and gave birth to Xiaolan before she was two years old, and did not live with her. Compared to Zhong, Wang started raising Xiaolan at a young age and provided more care, economic support, and spiritual comfort for her. Xiaolan's upbringing mainly relied on Wang. However, Lin and others did not provide evidence to prove that Zhong paid for Xiaolan's child support or fulfilled the obligation of supporting Xiaolan after remarriage. Therefore, Wang is the inheritor who lives with Xiaolan and has fulfilled the main obligation of supporting Xiaolan, and can legally inherit more. Based on this, the court ruled that Wang would inherit 60% of Xiaolan's estate and Zhong would inherit 40%. Zhong passed away before the division of his estate and did not explicitly renounce his inheritance. His share of the inheritance was transferred by his husband Lin and his children. The judgment has now come into effect. The judge reminded that inheritance is the lifelong wealth accumulation of the deceased, and the disposal of inheritance should consider emotional closeness. It is natural for the inheritance to be left to someone who is emotionally close to oneself. When the deceased does not have a testamentary support agreement or will, the Civil Code stipulates that the inheritance of the deceased should be appropriately distributed to the heirs who have fulfilled their main support obligations or lived with the deceased, reflecting the full concern and reasonable response of the law to the spiritual emotions of the deceased. In this case, "living together" and "fulfilling the main obligation of support" are regarded as key conditions for the statutory heirs to inherit more property. It is not simply based on the appearance of living together, but through substantive examination of the specific situation of the heirs' actual performance of support, assistance, and care in living together. While ensuring equal inheritance rights for heirs, it fully affirms and encourages heirs to actively fulfill their statutory obligations of support, assistance, and care. (New Society)