Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/227/375/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 19:04:59+00:00

Document:
During the lifetime of the ancestor, no heir has a vested right to inherit from him, and heirs only have such rights of inheritance as are given to them by the laws in force at their ancestor's death.
It is not an interference with vested rights to prescribe the mode of procedure, or the time within which to enforce them, provided reasonable time be given therefor.
Under the laws of Porto Rico, while Law Eleven of Toro as to effect of acts of recognition of rights of natural children may be in force, the provisions of § 133 and 137 of the Code of 1902 must be complied with in order to enforce such rights, and this applies to persons whose alleged parent died prior to the enactment of the Code.
Decisions of the courts of Spain rendered after 1898, construing Spanish law applicable to possessions ceded to the United States, although entitled to great consideration, do not preclude the local court from reaching an independent judgment.
The facts, which involve the construction of the law of Porto Rico in regard to actions for acknowledgment of natural children, are stated in the opinion.
The first of these suits was brought by the appellant, in 1908, it would seem, to have herself declared a natural daughter and entitled to a share of the estate of Don Santiago Rijos Correa, who died on April 29, 1869. The appellees demurred to the complaint on the grounds adverted to in Burnet v. Desmornes y Alvarez, 226 U. S. 145. By the Civil Code of 1889, Art. 137, actions for the acknowledgment of natural children can be instituted only during the life of the presumed parents, or, if the parent dies during the minority of the child, within the first four years of its majority. If the appellant was not of age at the death of Correa, she reached majority at the latest in 1893, and the action was barred in 1897. (Under the Code of 1902, § 199, the action is allowed only for two years after coming of age.) The supreme court sustained the demurrer and dismissed the complaint.
law in force was Law Eleven of Toro (Law 1, Title 5, bk. 10, Novisima Recopilacion); that, under that law, they acquired the status and rights of natural children by the facts alleged in their complaints, without the need of acknowledgment by public document or judicial approval, as required in the Civil Code of 1889, Art. 133, and so that they were entitled to sue for their share of the inheritance at once.
So far as the second case goes, perhaps it would be a sufficient answer to say that, during the lifetime of an ancestor, no heir has a vested right to inherit from him; that the Civil Code of 1889 confines the right of natural children to inherit to those children that are acknowledged (Art. 134); that is, presumably, to those that are acknowledged as it provides, and since heirs have only such rights of inheritance as are given to them by the laws in force at their ancestor's death, that there is no reason why the appellant should take greater ones because she had been informally acknowledged before 1889.
for enforcing them, to the provisions of this Code."
The court interpreted these words as meaning that, in order to enforce the rights of a natural child when there was not a solemn recognition, but only acts tending to establish paternity under the Laws of Toro, an action of filiation must be brought, as required by Articles 133 and 137 of the Code.
In other words, while, under the Laws of Toro, the Acts of recognition alleged, although not amounting to a solemn recognition, may have entitled a natural child to sue for her share of the inheritance and to prove the acts in the same suit, the Code requires a preliminary proceeding to prove those acts and to declare their effect, and limits the time within which such proceeding can be brought. This hardly can be called an interference with vested rights when a reasonable time for bringing the preliminary proceeding is allowed. In the present case, it does not appear that the plaintiff had not reasonable time for an action after the Code went into effect.
attributed to the local decision, to say that it is wrong. Gray v. Taylor, Jan. 20, 1913. How the first case should have been dealt with if it had appeared in the record that the plaintiff came of age before the Code went into effect we are not called upon to consider. The construction adopted might give trouble unless a right to bring an action of filiation within a reasonable time were implied. But we have to remember that the lawmaking power of Spain was not restricted in the way familiar to us.

References: § 133
 v. 
 Art. 137
 § 199
 Art. 133
 v.