Case ID: myrick_1/html/0121-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Blake: Roysdon: \n      By the Court:", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

ESTATE OF W. B. HARRISON.
    No. 5343
    Dec. 11, 1876.
    Succession.—Illegitimacy.—A half brother by the same father being illegitimate, CANNOT INHERIT. HALF SISTERS BY THE SAME MOTHER ARE ENTITLED TO TAKE.
    Conflicting sections.—Sections 1387 and 1388, O. C., conflict. Therefore, Sec. 1388 prevails, under Sec. 4484, Pol. Code.
    Construing sections, P. C., 4484; C. C., 1387-88.
    
      J. Naphtaly, for administrator.
    
      M. B. Blake, for half-sisters.
    
      A. W. Roysdon, for Attorney General.
   Blake:

The half-sisters take the entire estate, to the exclusion of the half brother. Williams on Descent, 416 to 419; 8 Leigh, (Va.) 307; 2 Root, (Conn.) 281; 1 Dev. (N. C. Eq.) 349; Civil Code, 1386-7-8. Pol. Code, 4484; 18 Cal., 96; 53 Maine, 495.

Roysdon:

Being alien illegitimate, they cannot inherit. Bing, on Descent, chap, inheritance, alien, illegitimacy; 4 Kent, 414 to 417; Potier on Suc., Art. 3, Sec. 3.

By the Court:

The male applicant is a half brother of deceased by the same father; the female applicants are half-sisters by the same mother; all are illegitimate, and all are natives and residents of Jamaica. The Attorney-General claims an escheat. The half-brother can take nothing, as the father of an illegitimate does not inherit, nor can the father be a conduit. As to the right of the half-sisters, there is a conflict in the Code. Sec. 1387, C. C., provides that an illegitimate child does not represent his father or mother by inheriting any part of the estate of his or her kindred”; while Sec. 1388 provides that if an illegitimate child dies intestate without issue, the estate goes to his mother, or in case of her decease, to her heirs-at-law. An illegitimate child is the heir of its mother. By Sec. 4484, Pol. Code, in case of conflicting sections the provisions of the section last in numerical order must prevail; therefore Sec. 1388 prevails, and the half-sisters, being heirs of the mother, she being dead, are entitled to the estate of the deceased.