Crater Estate

Opinion by

Mr. Justice Jones,

J ames J. Crater died intestate on September 3,1949, leaving to survive him a wife and eight first cousins but no issue. As the value of the net estate for distribution was less than $10,000, the wife claimed the whole of it by virtue of Section 2 (3) of the Intestate Act of April 24, 1947, P. L. 80, 20 PS §1.2 (3). The learned auditing judge rejected the wife’s claim in its entirety on the ground that, for upwards of a year previous to her husband’s death, she had wilfully and maliciously deserted him and had thereby forfeited all interest in his estate: see…