Section 1635: Surviving spouse's share
Statutory text (Thai original)
ลำดับและส่วนแบ่งของคู่สมรสที่ยังมีชีวิตอยู่ในการรับมรดกของผู้ตายนั้น ให้เป็นไปดังต่อไปนี้ (๑) ถ้ามีทายาทตามมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ (๑) ซึ่งยังมีชีวิตอยู่หรือมีผู้รับมรดกแทนที่ แล้วแต่กรณี คู่สมรสที่ยังมีชีวิตอยู่นั้น มีสิทธิได้ส่วนแบ่งเสมือนหนึ่งว่าตนเป็นทายาทชั้นบุตร (๒) ถ้ามีทายาทตามมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ (๓) และทายาทนั้นยังมีชีวิตอยู่หรือมีผู้รับมรดกแทนที่ หรือถ้าไม่มีทายาทตามมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ (๑) แต่มีทายาทตามมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ (๒) แล้วแต่กรณี คู่สมรสที่ยังมีชีวิตอยู่นั้นมีสิทธิได้รับมรดกกึ่งหนึ่ง (๓) ถ้ามีทายาทตามมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ (๔) หรือ (๖) และทายาทนั้นยังมีชีวิตอยู่ หรือมีผู้รับมรดกแทนที่ หรือมีทายาทตามมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ (๕) แล้วแต่กรณี คู่สมรสที่ยังมีชีวิตอยู่ มีสิทธิได้มรดกสองส่วนในสาม (๔) ถ้าไม่มีทายาทดังที่ระบุไว้ในมาตรา ๑๖๒๙ คู่สมรสที่ยังมีชีวิตอยู่นั้นมีสิทธิได้รับมรดกทั้งหมด
Verbatim from the Royal Gazette / Office of the Council of State
English translation
The order and the share of the surviving spouse in the estate of the deceased are as follows:
(1) if there is an heir under Section 1629 (1) surviving, or represented as the case may be, the surviving spouse is entitled to the same share as an heir of the rank of a child;
(2) if there is an heir under Section 1629 (3) surviving, or represented, or if there is no heir under Section 1629 (1) but there is an heir under Section 1629 (2), as the case may be, the surviving spouse is entitled to one half of the estate;
(3) if there is an heir under Section 1629 (4) or (6) surviving, or represented, or an heir under Section 1629 (5), as the case may be, the surviving spouse is entitled to two thirds of the estate;
(4) if there is none of the heirs listed in Section 1629, the surviving spouse is entitled to the whole estate.
ThaiLawOnline translation, written from the Thai original and verified
Firm annotation
Section 1635 spells out the spouse's fractional share. Against an heir under Section 1629(1), descendants, the spouse takes a share equal to that of a child. Against an heir under Section 1629(3), full-blood brothers and sisters, or where there is no heir under 1629(1) but there is one under 1629(2), parents, the spouse takes one half. Against an heir under Section 1629(4), half-blood brothers and sisters, or 1629(5), grandparents, or 1629(6), uncles and aunts, the spouse takes two thirds. Where there is no heir under Section 1629 at all, the spouse takes the whole estate. Note that this share is the spouse's share of the estate, taken after the Sin Somros has been divided.
Why this matters in practice
For lawyers: the §1635 fraction applies to the deceased's share of the estate (after liquidation of marital property under §1625). If class 1 descendants are present, the spouse takes an equal per capita share alongside the children: e.g., three children plus spouse means four equal shares. If only parents or siblings (classes 2 to 3) survive, the spouse takes one-half. With no heirs in classes 1 to 3, the spouse takes two-thirds if grandparents or uncles/aunts are present, and the entire estate if no other heir at all. Since 23 January 2025, these rules apply equally to same-sex spouses. For clients: getting married (including same-sex marriage since 23 January 2025) gives your spouse a guaranteed share of your estate even if your will tries to cut them out (see §1629 reading with §1635).
Legislative history
Part of the original Civil and Commercial Code codification; no major subsequent amendment to the quantum rules. Since 23 January 2025, the Marriage Equality Act (No. 24, B.E. 2567), in force from that date, extends the full rights of a surviving spouse under §1635 to a same-sex spouse. A same-sex surviving spouse now inherits on precisely the same terms as any other surviving spouse.
Supreme Court decisions interpreting this section
-
Supreme Court Judgment No. 5750/2533 (1990)
Section 4 of the Act promulgating Book 5 of the Civil and Commercial Code B.E. 2477 provides that Book 5 does not affect a marriage already subsisting before it came into force, so a child of such a union is the legitimate child of the father and a statutory heir. A woman who later registered a marriage with him is equally a statutory heir. Both may therefore apply to be administrator of his estate. How the estate is to be divided is not in issue on an application for letters of administration and will not be decided there. Where allowing either applicant to act alone might harm the estate or the other side, the court may appoint them jointly.
A son of the deceased by a marriage contracted before Book 5 came into force, and the woman who had later registered a marriage with him, each applied to be administrator and each objected to the other. The Supreme Court held that by section 4 of the Act promulgating Book 5 that earlier marriage was unaffected, so the applicant was the deceased legitimate child and a statutory heir, and the registered wife was a statutory heir too; both were qualified under section 1718 and both could apply. The applicant contention that the estate was really property his parents had acquired together went to how the estate should be divided and was outside the issue, which was only who should administer. The objector contention that the applicant had kept back 165,000 baht of rental-right money and should be excluded under section 1605 had not been pleaded in her objection and could not be raised on final appeal. Since allowing either to act alone might harm the estate and the other party, the courts below had rightly appointed them joint administrators.
Curated decisions with case numbers verified against the Supreme Court database. English renderings are the firm's editorial translation for study.
Cited in 29 Supreme Court decisions (1948 to 2024)
Selected citing decisions
- Decision 4837/2567 (2024)
- Decision 1023/2566 (2023)
- Decision 3884/2560 (2017)
- Decision 1276/2558 (2015)
- Decision 5691/2554 (2011)
- Decision 1976/2552 (2009)
- Decision 3472/2546 (2003)
- Decision 3830/2542 (1999)
This list is selected automatically, weighted towards judgments that turn on this section rather than ones that merely recite it when passing sentence. It has not yet been reviewed by the firm.
Most often cited alongside
Sections that appear in the same judgments as this one most often. The figure is the number of decisions.
Counted across the firm's corpus of 83,652 Supreme Court decisions, 1921 to 2026. The count is complete; the stated year range trims rare outliers so it describes where the citations actually sit. These figures are computed by us and are not official court statistics. How we count these, and what we measured
Frequently asked questions
How much does a surviving spouse inherit in Thailand?
Under §1635, the surviving spouse's share depends on which class of other heir is present: (a) if the deceased left descendants under §1629(1), the spouse takes the same share as each child, so two children plus a spouse means three equal shares; (b) if the deceased left full-blood siblings under §1629(3), or left no descendants but did leave parents under §1629(2), the spouse takes one half of the estate; (c) if the deceased left half-blood siblings under §1629(4), grandparents under §1629(5), or uncles and aunts under §1629(6), the spouse takes two thirds; (d) if there is no §1629 heir at all, the spouse takes the whole estate. Note that half-blood siblings sit in group (c) and not in group (b), so where the competing heirs are half-blood siblings the spouse takes two thirds and not one half. Note also that the spouse first receives their own half of the joint marital property (Sin Somros) before the estate is counted. Since 23 January 2025, these rules apply equally to a same-sex spouse registered under the Marriage Equality Act.
Related guides on ThaiLawOnline
Cite this section
-
Plain citation
Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1635 (Thailand) -
Academic citation
Civil and Commercial Code (Thailand), s. 1635. ThaiLawOnline, https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1635/ (accessed 27 August 2026). -
Thai citation
ป.พ.พ. มาตรา 1635 -
Permalink
https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1635/ -
Embed on your site
<blockquote cite="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1635/"><p>The order and the share of the surviving spouse in the estate of the deceased are as follows: (1) if there is an heir under Section 1629 (1) surviving, or represented as the case may be, the surviving spouse is entitled to the same share…</p><footer>Civil and Commercial Code, s. 1635 (Thailand): <a href="https://www.thailawonline.com/thai-civil-code/section-1635/">ThaiLawOnline</a></footer></blockquote>
The Thai text is authoritative. The English is an unofficial translation by ThaiLawOnline, free to reuse with attribution.