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after grandma passed away, the grandson sued his aunt, asking for subrogation to divide grandma's death benefit and funeral expenses.

are death benefits part of the estate? do the rules of subrogation apply? on september 29, the paper reporter learned from the putuo district people’s court of shanghai (hereinafter referred to as the shanghai putuo court) that the court recently concluded a property dispute case between an aunt and nephew caused by the division of death benefits.

according to the shanghai putuo court, the plaintiff xiao wang’s grandparents wang and li have passed away in recent years. they have a son and a daughter. xiao wang’s father has passed away before wang and li. now the only surviving children of the two elders are wang. first. the plaintiff, xiao wang, is the only son of the deceased son of his two elders and the nephew of the defendant, wang moujia.

when both elders were alive, they lived alone. after wang passed away, because li was unable to take care of himself, wang a took li back to his home to live together and took care of li's daily life. xiao wang has never lived with his grandparents.

after li passed away, his unit transferred the death benefits and funeral subsidies into wang a's account.

xiao wang sued his aunt wang moujia, believing that the death benefit and funeral expenses were the common property of the deceased's close relatives, and requested to divide the death benefit and funeral expenses issued by li's unit.

defendant wang moujia believed that the scope of distribution of death benefits should be to the surviving parents, spouse, and children, rather than all close relatives. factors such as distance of relatives and whether they live together should also be considered. on the one hand, xiao wang’s father had died before wang and li. after li’s death, his only living immediate relative was his daughter wang a. on the other hand, wang jia has been responsible for taking care of his mother li after his father wang passed away, and took care of li's funeral affairs. however, the plaintiff xiao wang has never lived with his two elders, nor has he taken care of wang or li. . therefore, the plaintiff xiao wang cannot request division of li’s death benefit through subrogation.

after hearing, the shanghai putuo court held that the plaintiff xiao wang’s father had died before the deceased, and during the lifetime of the deceased, the plaintiff did not live with the deceased or fulfill the main support obligations, and there was no support or custody relationship between them. therefore, the plaintiff xiao wang cannot claim subrogation for the death benefit paid by li’s employer during his lifetime. therefore, the people's court did not support the plaintiff's claim for division of death benefits.

the plaintiff claimed that part of the divided death benefit was the funeral expenses paid by the deceased’s employer during his lifetime. funeral expenses are a kind of financial compensation provided by relevant units to relatives of the deceased for handling funeral affairs, and they do not fall within the scope of inheritance. the plaintiff did not participate in the funeral arrangements, so the plaintiff’s claim for dividing the funeral expenses should not be supported.

in the end, the shanghai putuo court ruled to reject all the plaintiff’s claims. after the verdict of the case, neither party appealed and the case is now in effect.