When any person having title to any estate dies without disposing of the estate by will, it is succeeded to and must be distributed, unless otherwise expressly provided in this Code in the following manner:
1. 
To the surviving spouse of the decedent;
a. 
Upon finding of the Court that a valid marriage existed at the time of the death of the decedent, except as defined in subsection (C); or
b. 
The surviving member of an unmarried couple shall be considered a spouse if two (2) people who are not married have been living together for five (5) or more continuous years;
c. 
If an otherwise valid marriage existed at the time of the death of the decedent and the couple lived separately for the five (5) years preceding death, the marriage shall not be considered valid for the purposes of succession and distribution.
2. 
If there is no spouse, then to the surviving children equally;
a. 
All biological children of the decedent;
b. 
All adopted children of the decedent;
c. 
All children of a spouse;
d. 
All children the decedent maintained a reputation of parenthood of within the community for five (5) consecutive years, or if the child be less than five (5) years old, than for the length of the child’s life;
e. 
A child born after the death of a parent inherits from that parent as if he had been born in the lifetime of such parent and survived him;
3. 
If there be no husband, nor wife, nor father, nor mother, nor issue, then in equal shares to the brothers and sisters of the decedent, and to the children or grandchildren of any deceased brother or sister by right of representation;
4. 
If there is no one capable of succeeding under the previous subdivisions of this section, the property of the decedent escheats to the Port Gamble S’Klallam Tribe, to be used or disposed of for the benefit of the tribe as a whole.
(11/22/2021)
If a child who has not been acknowledged or adopted by his father dies intestate, without lawful issue, his estate goes to his mother, or in case of her death, to her heirs.
(11/22/2021)
Inheritance or succession by right of representation takes place when the decedents of any deceased heir take the same share or right in the estate of another person that their parents would have taken if living. Inheritance by right of representation is preserved and representatives shall inherit as prescribed by succession.
(11/22/2021)