Case Name: EZIDORE v. CUREAU'S HEIRS (JACKSON, Intervener)
Court: Louisiana Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Louisiana
Decision Date: 1904-05-09
Citations: 113 La. 839
Docket Number: No. 15,215
Parties: EZIDORE v. CUREAU’S HEIRS (JACKSON, Intervener).
Judges: 
Reporter: Louisiana Reports
Volume: 113
Pages: 839–845

Head Matter:
(37 South. 773.)
No. 15,215.
EZIDORE v. CUREAU’S HEIRS (JACKSON, Intervener).
(May 9, 1904.
On the Merits, Dec. 5, 1904.)
APPEAL — JURISDICTION — LEGITIMACY — PRESUMPTIONS — MOTION TO DISMISS.
1. Where á minor in necessitous circumstances, bom of the wife of its putative and deceased father during the life of the latter, makes claim, under Oiv. Code, art. 3252, to a sum of money derived from the sale under executory process of property belonging to his succession, which sum is less than that to which the appellate jurisdiction of this court extends, and the seizing creditor, by way of defense to the claim so made, denies the paternity of the minor, the judgment of the district court, holding that, as the child of the marriage, the minor is legitimate in the eyes of the law, is appealable to this court: and the appeal will not be dismissed on the suggestion that the court is without jurisdiction quoad the amount of the fund in dispute.
On the Merits.
2. Where the evidence shows beyond dispute that a child was conceived and born during marriage, and was not disavowed by the husband during his lifetime in the mode prescribed by law, the status of legitimacy is fixed, and can be questioned by no one in any form of proceeding. See Succession of Saloy, 10 South. 872, 44 La. Ann. 433.
(Syllabus by the Court.)
Appeal from Twenty-Eighth Judicial District Court, Parish of St. John the Baptist; Jerome Louis Gaudet, Judge.
Action by A. S. Ezidore against the heirs of Sidney Cureau. John Henry Jackson, tutor, files third opposition. From the judgment, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
James Y. Chenet and Francis Charles Zacharie, for appellant. John Alonzo Wood-ville, Louis Hermann Marerro, Jr., and Daniel Wendling, for appellees.
Rehearing denied January 16, 1905.

Opinion:
On Motion to Dismiss Appeal.
MONROE, J.
Plaintiff having proceeded, via executiva, to cause certain property to be sold to satisfy a mortgage of $500 imposed on it by Sidney Cureau, deceased, and the, property having realized $650, a third opposition was filed, claiming said amount on behalf of decedent's minor child, in necessitous circumstances. There was judgment for the opponent from which the plaintiff has appealed. The opponent moves to-dismiss the appeal on the ground that this court is without jurisdiction ratione mate-rise. The ground upon which the appellate' jurisdiction is invoked is that the plaintiff, in his answer to the opposition, denies the-paternity of the minor.
It is conceded that the .minor was born of' the decedent's wife during their marriage. It is not suggested that its legitimacy has-ever been questioned by the decedent or his heirs; and the learned judge a quo held, in ruling upon the admissibility of evidence, that it cannot be questioned by plaintiff, and, upon the merits, that "as the child of the marriage, she [the minor] is legitimate in the eyes of the law." The question of legitimacy was therefore presented to and decided by the district court, and quoad that question the ease is appealable to this court,, and must be considered on its merits.
The motion to dismiss is therefore denied-