(a) If the homestead selected by the husband and wife, or either of them, during their coverture, and recorded while both were living, was selected from the community property, or from property to which Section 1101 of this Title is applicable, or from the separate property of the person selecting or joining in the selection of the same, it vests, on the death of either spouse, absolutely in the survivor.
COL120106 EXEMPT PROPERTY, FAMILY ALLOWANCE (b) If the homestead was selected from the separate property of the decedent, the decedent not having joined therein, it vests, on death, in the decedent's heirs or devisees, subject to the power of the Superior Court to set it apart for a limited period to the family of the decedent, as provided in Section 2409 of this Title. (c) No homestead referred to in subsections (a) or (b) of this Section is subject to the payment of any debt or liability existing against the spouses or either of them, at the time of the death of either, except as provided in the Civil Code of Guam. SOURCE: Probate Code of Guam (1970), § 663; California Probate Code, § 663 (as amended); Guam Law Revision Commission. COMMENT: Apart from minor wording changes and the use of subsections, the only substantive change to § 663 of the Probate Code of Guam (1970) is the addi- tion of language concerning Aquasi-community property@ -- i.e., the language concerning § 1101. The purpose of §§ 2405 and 2407 is to grant absolute title in previously declared homesteads to the surviving family, if the homestead was selected from community property, Aquasi-community@ property or the separate property of the person who made the selection or joined in the selection. By the operation of these Sections, such property is not part of the probate estate; in effect, these Sections convert previously homesteaded property into something very much like property held in joint tenancy. Moreover, property so passed to surviving family is exempt from execution, unless -- as provided in the Civil Code -- the property is encumbered. If, on the other hand, previously declared homestead property was selected from the decedent's separate property without the decedent's consent, then the property vests in the decedent's heirs or devisees (depending on whether the decedent died testate or intestate), subject to the power of the court to set it aside in any event to the decedent's family for a limited period of time, as provided elsewhere in this Chapter. But in either case, where there was a previously declared homestead, where the proper person petitions for a homestead after the decedent's death and where the court grants such a homestead, the homestead property is exempt from the payment of the decedent's debts -- except, again, as provided in the Civil Code as to encumbered property.