Except as provided in Sections 11446, 13552, 13553, and 13554, upon the death of a married person, the surviving spouse is personally liable for the debts of the deceased spouse chargeable against the property described in Section 13551 to the extent provided in Section 13551.
Cal. Prob. Code § 13550
Liability for Debts of Deceased Spouse
Applied in 5 court decisions — leading case 24 Cal. 4th 301 - Collection Bureau of San Jose v. Rumsey (2000)
Most recently applied in Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. v. Renz (June 2011)
Enacted by Stats. 1990, Ch. 79.
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.