Descendants are the decedent’s children or their representatives1 and take to the exclusion of other heirs.2
Children adopted through a formal adoption proceeding have the same inheritance rights as the other children of the deceased adoptive parent.3 An adopted child may also inherit from the child’s natural parents and their relatives; however, natural parents and relatives cannot inherit from the surrendered child.4 Stepchildren do not inherit unless they were formally adopted by the decedent.
A child born outside of marriage inherits to the same extent as a child born to married parents only if the child is formally acknowledged by authentic act or by a judgment in a timely-initiated filiation proceeding.5 Since 2016, signing a child’s birth certificate no longer qualifies as an acknowledgement.6
If you are faced with a situation involving a child born outside of marriage, search the public records for an acknowledgement of paternity or for proceedings ordering the father to pay child support, which may involve such an acknowledgment. Acknowledgments may also occur in divorce or other succession proceedings. A donation inter vivos may also meet the requirements of an acknowledgment.7
To establish filiation for purposes of succession, an unacknowledged child born outside of marriage must institute an action no later than 1 year after the father’s death.8 All relevant evidence is admissible to prove paternity, including lab tests, acts of informal acknowledgment by the father, and cohabitation of the father and mother at the time of conception.
Under prior law, the period to file a filiation action was limited to either 1 year after the parent’s death or 19 years after the child’s birth, whichever occurred first. Unacknowledged children’s filiation claims that were time-barred by the age of the child under prior law remain time-barred.9 Thus, even if the parent died after the effective date of the new law, if the child was over 19 years of age on June 29, 2005, the child cannot initiate a filiation action.
- 1For further discussion of representation, see Section 5.2.
- 2La. C.C. art. 888.
- 3La. C.C. art. 199.
- 4Id.
- 5See La. C.C. arts. 195–198.
- 6Act of June 2, 2016, No. 309, § 196, effective August 1, 2016.
- 7See In re Succession of Dangerfield, 2016-0293 (La. App. 1 Cir. 10/31/16), 207 So. 3d 427.
- 8La. C.C. art. 197.
- 9See In re Succession of Smith, 09-969 (La. App. 3 Cir. 02/03/10), 29 So. 3d 723; In re Succession of Faget, 2005-1434 (La. App. 1 Cir. 6/9/06), 938 So. 2d 1003; Succession of McKay, 2005-603 (La. App. 3 Cir. 2/1/06), 921 So. 2d 1219.