Shannen Doherty Divorce Finalized After Her Death

Shannen Doherty was determined to finalize her divorce before she died, but she didn't quite make it ... nevertheless, a family law judge gave her a unique, posthumous assist.

As you know, Shannen died Saturday after a multi-year struggle with cancer. Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ, those closest to her knew she would not make it past the weekend.

Shannen, we're told, wanted an official divorce from Kurt Iswarienko before she passed. They were married in 2011 and the split was bitter.

Our sources say Shannen's lawyer, Disso Queen Laura Wasser, worked furiously to settle the divorce terms in the last week of the "Beverly Hills, 90210" star's life, which happened last Friday. Problem was ... the judge didn't sign off before the weekend and by Monday Shannen was already dead.

In California and most states, once someone in the throes of a divorce dies, the family law court loses jurisdiction and the case is handled in probate court. Probate judges don't finalize divorces, so under normal circumstances, Shannen would have died as a married woman.

But Monday -- 2 days after Shannen's death -- the family law judge signed the divorce papers and the divorce judgment was posthumously entered. So even though Shannen died a married woman, she is -- for the record -- divorced.