Case Name: Bill FOSTER et al. v. Bobby FOSTER, Administrator of Estate of Eddie Foster, Deceased, et al.
Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 1977-03-02
Citations: 344 So. 2d 460
Docket Number: No. 48850
Parties: Bill FOSTER et al. v. Bobby FOSTER, Administrator of Estate of Eddie Foster, Deceased, et al.
Judges: Before GILLESPIE, C. J., and ROBERTSON and LEE, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 344
Pages: 460–463

Head Matter:
Bill FOSTER et al. v. Bobby FOSTER, Administrator of Estate of Eddie Foster, Deceased, et al.
No. 48850.
Supreme Court of Mississippi.
March 2, 1977.
Laurel G. Weir, Philadelphia, for appellants.
Wilburn Davis Moore, Jr., Philadelphia, for appellees.
Before GILLESPIE, C. J., and ROBERTSON and LEE, JJ.

Opinion:
ROBERTSON, Justice
for the Court:
The Petition for Rehearing filed on behalf of appellee, Willie Fort Foster, is granted, and the opinion, reversing the decision of the Chancery Court of Neshoba County, is withdrawn. The following opinion, affirming the judgment of the Chancery Court, is substituted therefor:
Eddie Foster died intestate in Neshoba County, Mississippi, on September 14, 1973. Bobby Foster, claiming to be a son of Eddie, filed a Petition for Letters of Administration in the Chancery Court of Neshoba County, and letters were granted to him.
Willie Fort Foster petitioned the court to adjudge him to be the sole and only heir at law. He alleged that he was the son of Eddie Foster and Lena Seals, who were ceremonially married on December 26,1934, and that he was born to that marriage on May 12, 1942. Willie Fort Foster attached a copy of the marriage license as issued and recorded in Winston County, and a certified copy of his birth certificate, to his petition.
Bobby Foster and Billy Foster, who claimed to be the sons and sole heirs at law of Eddie Foster by virtue of an alleged common law marriage to Laura Wells, filed an answer and cross-bill.
Bill Foster, John Foster and Dell Donaldson, the brothers and sister of Eddie Foster, intervened and denied that Billy Foster, Bobby Foster and Willie Fort Foster were Eddie's legal heirs, and averred that they were the sole and only heirs at law cf Eddie Foster.
After a full trial (the record consisting of three volumes containing 539 pages of testimony and documentary evidence), the chancellor rendered this opinion:
"The Court, after reading and considering the pleadings and hearing the testimony and examining the exhibits to the testimony and listening to the argument of counsel, is of the opinion that the Intervenors, Bobby Foster and Billy Foster, failed to prove a common law marriage of their mother, Laura Wells, to Eddie Foster; therefore, they are not heirs-at-law of Eddie Foster. The Court further finds, and is of the opinion, from the evidence presented, that Willie Fort Foster is the son of Eddie Foster and Lena Seals Foster and is Eddie Foster's sole and only heir-at-law. The Court is of the further opinion that the present administrator should file a final accounting and that Willie Fort Foster should be appointed as administrator of the estate."
In the decree, the court found and adjudicated that:
"[T]he Petitioner, Willie Fort Foster has presented sufficient evidence to prove the allegations of his petition and the said Willie Fort Foster is hereby ordered, adjudged and decreed to be the sole and only heir at law of Eddie Foster, deceased."
The court then dismissed the cross-bill filed by Bobby Foster and Billy Foster, and the cross-bill filed by Bill Foster, John Foster, and Dell Donaldson.
Bobby Foster and Billy Foster did not appeal from the ruling of the court, but Bill Foster, John Foster and Dell Donaldson, the brothers and sister of Eddie Foster, deceased, have appealed and contend in this Court that the finding of the chancellor was against the overwhelming weight of the evidence.
Willie Fort Foster, in support of his claim, introduced into evidence the marriage license of Eddie Foster and Lena Seals issued on December 15, 1934, and showing the rites of matrimony performed on December 26, 1934, by J. W. Byrd, a minister of the Gospel.
He also introduced into evidence a delayed birth certificate sworn to by Eddie Foster and Lena Seals Foster before the Neshoba County Chancery Clerk on September 16, 1954, stating under oath that they were the father and mother, respectively, of Willie Fort Foster, who was born to them on May 12, 1942; and his school records showing Eddie as his father and Lena as his mother. He also introduced as an exhibit a warranty deed to Richard E. Winstead signed by Eddie Foster and Willie F. Foster, and acknowledged by "Eddie Foster and his son, Willie F. Foster", on December 17, 1965, before Estille B. Akins, Notary Public.
It was in evidence that Lena Seals Foster died in 1956.
Bill Foster, John Foster and Dell Donaldson, the brothers and sister of Eddie Foster, were allowed to testify in spite of the objections to their testimony as violating the dead man's statute. They testified that Willie Fort Foster was the child of Armedia Hudson, an unmarried woman. It was undisputed that Eddie Foster was the father, in fact, all witnesses admitted the paternity of Willie Fort Foster. All witnesses admitted that Willie Fort Foster had lived with Eddie and Lena since he was IV2 years of age, that he called Lena "mother" and Eddie "daddy", and that they called him "son". It was admitted that Eddie and Lena fed, clothed, educated and supported Willie Fort Foster as their son.
This cause was tried on May 29 and 30, 1974, almost twenty years after the birth certificate was executed and sworn to by Eddie and Lena on September 16, 1954. Lena's mouth was sealed when she died in 1956, and Eddie's when he died in 1973.
Armedia Hudson, who Bill and John Foster and Dell Donaldson claimed was the natural mother of Willie Fort Foster, had passed away. Her mouth was sealed. No birth certificate was offered to show that Willie Fort Foster was the child of Armedia Hudson, nor was any birth certificate offered to show that Armedia Hudson even gave birth to any child on May 12, 1942 (Willie Fort Foster's birthday).
The chancellor during this two-day trial observed the demeanor of all witnesses on the stand, considered their interest in the outcome of this law suit, and determined how much of the testimony of each witness was credible and how much was not credible.
The chancellor, of course, considered Mississippi Code Annotated section 41-57-9 (1972), which provides:
"Any copy of the records of birth, sickness, or death, when properly certified to by the state registrar of vital statistics to be a true copy thereof, shall be prima facie evidence in all courts and places of the facts therein stated."
The chancellor took into consideration this Court's consistent pronouncements for more than 100 years that one of the strongest presumptions known to the law is the presumption that a child born in wedlock is a legitimate child. Herring v. Goodson, 43 Miss. 392 (1870).
The latest pronouncement by this Court on this subject was made in Dixon v. Curtis, 340 So.2d 722 (Miss.1977). Just a month ago, this Court said:
"The presumption that a child born in wedlock is a legitimate child is one of the strongest presumptions known to the law, Krohn v. Migues, 274 So.2d 654 (Miss.1973), and may be rebutted only by proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the husband is not the father. Stone v. Stone, 210 So.2d 672 (Miss.1968). After fifty years the frail memorials of human memory will rarely be accepted to rebut the presumption of legitimacy arising from documented records of marriage and birth certificate." 340 So.2d at 727.
We are of the opinion that the chancery court's decision that Willie Fort Foster was the sole and only heir-at-law of his father, Eddie Foster, deceased, was supported by substantial evidence.
The decree of the chancery court is, therefore, affirmed.
This case was considered by a conference of the Judges en banc.
AFFIRMED.
PATTERSON and INZER, P. JJ., and SMITH, SUGG, WALKER and BROOM, JJ., concur.
LEE, J., and GILLESPIE, C. J., dissent.