Opinion ID: 1113494
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Spanish Law

Text: The final source of forced heirship doctrine for consideration is the Spanish law. The Spanish laws of forced heirship were of more or less direct Roman origin. Although the evolution of forced heirship under Spanish law is long and involved, a review of this history reveals three basic points of interest about the Spanish law of forced heirship at the time the Territory of Louisiana was under Spanish rule. First, the only persons entitled to the légitime under Spanish law were ascendants and descendants; similar to French law, collaterals were excluded but, unlike French law, ascendants were included. Second, the children's légitime was four-fifths of the parent's estate, although this amount could be decreased to one-third when this one-third was donated for the betterment of the children of the testator. The ascendant-parent's légitime under Spanish law was two-thirds of the child's estate. [23] Finally, the Spanish law recognized the doctrine of mejora, by which the testator could give one child one-half of the forced portion, splitting the remainder among the other children. [24] The Spanish recognition of mejora is interesting because it is completely contrary to the French notion requiring equality of treatment of all children.