Court Opinion

ID: 9679498
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:54:19.315854+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:14.134428
License: Public Domain

HAWTHORNE, Justice
(dissenting).
I should like to state once again that I do not agree with the holding of this court in the cases of State v. Jones, 220 La. 381, 56 So.2d 724; State v. Sims, 220 La. 532, 57 So.2d 177, and State v. Love, 220 La. 562, 57 So.2d 187. As I said in my dissent to the majority opinion in State v. Sims [220 La. 532, 57 So.2d 186], the Legislature of Louisiana “has full power to make criminal any act or omission to act which it deems necessary for the public good, provided that by so doing it does not violate the provisions of the state or federal Constitution.” Moreover, I did not agree with the majority of this court that writs should be denied in the case of State of Louisiana v. Henry Holmes, No. 41,076 on' the docket of this court, and for this reason I-did not sign the order denying the writs applied for by the State, relator in that case.
There is not any doubt that Act 368 of 1952 amending R.S. 14:74 was enacted' by the Legislature to comply with the ruling of this court in State v. Jones and State v. Sims, supra. This amendment provides that criminal neglect of family is the *896desertion or intentional nonsupport by either parent of his minor child, whether legitimate or illegitimate, who is in destitute or necessitous circumstances, and establishes the duty for either parent to support such child. The Legislature by this act clearly made it a crime for a father to fail intentionally to support his illegitimate child in necessitous circumstances. The amendment further provides that proof of paternity in the case of an illegitimate child shall be made in accordance with the rules established by the Civil Code of 1870, as amended, as for proof of maternity or paternity for civil purposes. The rules established by the Civil Code to prove paternity are found in Article 209, which provides that such proof may be made in any of the following ways:
“1. - By all kinds of private writings, in which the father may have acknowledged the bastard as his child, or may have called him so;
“2. When the father, either in public or in private, has acknowledged him as his" child, or has called him so in conversation, or has caused him to be educated as such;
“3. When the mother of the child was known as living in a state of concubinage with the father, and resided as such in his house at the time when the child was conceived.”
The majority opinion in the instant case, however, concludes that such proof of paternity, although made strictly under the terms of the act itself, is.not sufficient, but that in addition thereto the defendant in such a case must be established as the natural father of the illegitimate child (1) by notarial acknowledgment or (2) by a judgment of the court in a civil proceeding, and that otherwise his conviction under the act cannot be sustained.
The making of laws and the formulating of the public policy of the state áre functions of the legislative branch; the interpretation of these laws is the function of the judiciary. The Legislature by R.S. 14:74 and again by the amending statute of 1952, enacted after decisions of this court had rendered the original act inoperative as to unacknowledged illegitimate children, evinced its intent to make it a crime for a parent to fail intentionally to support his illegitimate child in necessitous circumstances, and the language of the act is so clear that only one interpretation is possible. By its holding in this case the majority of the court has usurped the function of the lawmakers and has written into the act restrictions and requirements which are not found in it and are not intended to be in it. As in the Jones and the Sims cases, the court here is again defeating the plain legislative intent without any right or authority in law to do so.
I respectfully dissent.