Who legally owns Millenium Falcon now?

Question

First off,

• The question is an actual Earth (American version, if jurisdiction matters) legal one

• It was inspired by Star Wars Episode VII, "The Force Awakens" related question on SciFi.SE site.

  As such it contains spoilers for an important plot twist in the film, so please continue reading at your own risk.

Let's pretend that Millenium Falcon is a regular, Earth human trading freighter ship, registered to US flag.

It has an owner-captain (Han Solo), and a First Mate (Chewbacca) who is second in command. Both are US citizens.

Question: If the owner-operator dies - and absent any specific documents like a will, or joint ownership papers - does the First Mate inherit the freighter, in preference to the "standard" inheritance chain - wife and children? (assume that the wife is alive and can claim inheritance, to avoid complicated legal fallback scenarios)

If it matters, let's assume it's registered in whichever state LucasFilm (or Disney) headquarters are.

Answer 1

No, the first mate does not inherit

If the first mate is an employee then his employment contract is terminated by the death of the principal and he would be entitled to be paid his accrued wages and entitlements only. If the Falcon was Han's only asset, the estate would have to liquidate (sell) it to meet this obligation. In most jurisdictions there would be legal and administrative costs to be settled too.

Even if there was a legal partnership between the captain and the first mate that included ownership of the ship; the captain's share would pass through normal inheritance rules. The same would apply to shares in any holding company interposed between the captain/first mate and the ship. In either case Chewie would have a new partner.

Where the ship is registered is irrelevant; the law governing the inheritance would be that of where the estate is domiciled. For a person of no fixed address like Han this would probably be based on his citizenship; AFAIK Corillian.

If their laws are the same as NSW Australia see http://www.legalanswers.sl.nsw.gov.au/guides/wills_estates/inheritance.html. On this basis the ship passes to his spouse Leia Organa or spouses if Chewie is a de-facto spouse (there's a lot of down time in space travel).

Answer 2

I've conducted this analysis as requested by the poster, under the laws of California.

The owner of the Millennium Falcon is Leia Organa if

1. Han Solo left no will; and,
2. We follow California's intestacy laws.

According to Nolo's summary of California's probate laws (and referencing the actual code available here when the summary was not appropriate), When a person has a spouse and children, the spouse inherits all of the community property and 1/2 or 1/3 of the separate property, while children inherit 1/2 or 2/3 of the separate property.

The Millennium Falcon is clearly separate property, as it was clearly in Solo's possession prior to the start of Episode IV, which means it was his before the marriage.

Since Han Solo has one known child on record, Leia would ordinarily get half of the separate property, which means she would only own half the Millennium Falcon. However, California has the slayer doctrine in its intestacy inheritance laws (Probate Code 250). This means if someone "feloniously and intentionally kills the decedent", the property "passes as if the killer had predeceased the decedent". This would normally mean the intestacy heir of the slayer, would get the property. However, Kylo Ren, has no children, which means his parents would inherit his property. This inheritance takes place before the death of Han Solo (an act of legal fiction), thus the estate of Han Solo is left with only a spouse. And since there are no parents of record for Han Solo, Leia Organa inherits everything.

Leia Organa is thus the owner of the Millennium Falcon.

Answer 3

Lando Calrissian should sue for ownership. He was the owner before Han Solo, but lost it in a poker game. It has always been claimed that Han Solo cheated in that game. So the transfer was void.

But none of it matters, since the Millennium Falcon has so many illegal modifications(dual hyperdrives, hidden storage, customized weapon firing system, etc), once the courts saw it, it would be stripped or scrapped outright. Would be like who owns a WW1-era battleship? It is legal, but all the guns would be removed, the steam engines are out of code and would be removed, etc.