Davis v. Jones

• Decision Date: 06 January 1982
• Docket Number: No. C-364,C-364
• Parties: Marie V. DAVIS, Petitioner, v. Kathryn Anne JONES et al., Respondents.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 303

626 S.W.2d 303

Marie V. DAVIS, Petitioner, v. Kathryn Anne JONES et al., Respondents.

No. C-364.

Supreme Court of Texas.

Jan. 6, 1982.

E. W. Newman, Houston, for petitioner.

M. W. Plummer, Houston, for respondents.

GREENHILL, Chief Justice.

At issue is whether an illegitimate daughter and an illegitimate grandson, in the absence of a will, may inherit from their father and grandfather respectively under a Texas statute.

The trial court held that they could not. The court of civil appeals reversed the judgment of the trial court. 616 S.W.2d 276. It held that the statute was unconstitutional under opinions of the Supreme Court of the United States. We do not so read those opinions. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the court of civil appeals and affirm the judgment of the trial court.

Warren Davis Sr. was married to Marie Davis. In 1942, Warren Sr. is alleged to have had a child by Ruth Lockett. The child is Kathryn Anne Jones (Kathryn). Warren Sr. did not marry Ruth Lockett; and while there is some deposition testimony from a third party that Warren Sr. identified Kathryn Anne as his daughter, there was no official legitimation of her. She is now divorced and works in California.

Warren Sr. and his wife Marie had a son, Warren Davis Jr. Warren Jr. did not marry. He is alleged to have had a son, Craig Faultry, by a woman whose name does not appear in the record. Warren Jr. was killed in 1960 in an accident a month before Craig was born. There is nothing in the record to show that Warren Jr. knew that he was to have a son. He, obviously, could not have taken steps to have legitimatized the child after his birth because Warren Jr. died before the child's birth.

Neither Warren Sr. nor Warren Jr. left a will. Apparently Warren Jr. left no estate. The claims that are made by Kathryn and Craig are against the estate of Warren Sr. who died in July of 1978. Upon his death, his wife, Marie, became administratrix of the estate.

Kathryn and Craig filed a petition in Probate Court Number One of Harris County to determine the heirship of Warren Davis Sr. Marie Davis, the administratrix, and the wife of Warren Sr., denied the allegations of Kathryn and Craig, and moved for summary judgment.

Counsel for Kathryn and Craig filed an unsworn answer to the motion. It quotes from a deposition, not contained in the record, given by Joyce Johnson. Ms. Johnson says that Warren Sr. described his relationship with Craig as that of grandson. As to Kathryn, Ms. Johnson said that in 1965, Warren Sr. introduced Kathryn to her as his daughter. The daughter was then in her late twenties. Ms. Johnson had a picture of Warren Sr. and Kathryn. She also had two letters in which Warren Sr. referred to Kathryn as "my daughter," and "my baby" (who is) "19 years old (and) is getting pretty matured." Ms. Johnson identified the handwriting as being that of Warren Davis Sr. No signature is shown on one of the letters. Apparently the end of this letter was not "introduced" at the deposition of Ms. Johnson. Kathryn stated in her answers to interrogatories that her mother had told her that Warren Sr. was her father. She also stated that he had "recognized" her as his daughter. We shall assume that all of this is admissible at the summary judgment hearing. There is no statement from Craig Faultry in the record. Nor are there statements from the mothers of Kathryn or Craig Faultry.

The Texas Statutes

Before 1977, an illegitimate child could inherit, under the Texas statute, only from the mother. Warren Jr. died in 1960.

We can only guess what the Supreme Court of the United States would have held around 1960 as to the constitutionality of the then Texas statute, if a claim had been made on behalf of Craig against the estate of Warren Jr. No such claim was, or is, made. In 1971, that court upheld a Louisiana statute which, under the facts, did not permit inheritance by an illegitimate child from the father. Four justices dissented. Labine v. Vincent, 401 U.S. 532, 91 S.Ct. 1017, 28 L.Ed.2d 288. ¹

The Texas Legislature was in session in 1977 when the Supreme Court handed down Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U.S. 762, 97 S.Ct. 1459, 52 L.Ed.2d 31 (April, 1977). Trimble is discussed later herein. It invalidated an Illinois statute. The Legislature, in 1977, amended Section 42 of our Probate Code to provide for alternate methods of making children legitimate. ² The statute was amended again in 1979; ³ but since Warren Sr. died in 1978, we are concerned with the constitutionality of the 1977 statute. We refer to it as Section 42.

Section 42 provided in section (a) that an illegitimate child would inherit from the mother and her maternal kindred, including ascendants.

Section (b) provided that if the father and the mother married, the child would be legitimated. The child would then also inherit from the father and the paternal kindred, including ascendants.

Section (c) provided for voluntary legitimation proceedings under which the child would inherit from the father but not from his paternal kindred; i.e., not from his grandfather. The Section reads:

(c) Legitimation by Voluntary Legitimation Proceeding. Where a man, having by a woman a child shall afterwards legitimate the child pursuant to a voluntary legitimation proceeding under Chapter 13, Family Code, such child and his issue shall inherit from his father but not from his paternal kindred; and the father, but not the father's kindred, shall inherit from such child and his issue.

Section (d) provided that where there was a marriage, or if the child was legitimatized, the child would be considered legitimate for purposes of homestead, exempt property, and family allowances.

Section (e) provided that the issue of marriages deemed null in law should nevertheless be legitimate.

Decisions of the Supreme Court

Discussion of the decisions of the U. S. Supreme Court in Labine, and cases coming after it, is difficult because the members of that court are sharply divided, usually five to four. There are many separate opinions of the justices.

The conflicting considerations are (1) on the side of the child, the equal protection clause and invidious discrimination; and (2) on the side of the state, its legitimate purpose in the orderly disposition and settlement of estates, the integrity of the family unit, and encouraging legitimate family relationships. Of these, the "just and orderly disposition of property at death" was regarded as most persuasive. The difficulty of proof of paternity was a major problem, but it was not regarded as insurmountable.

The facts of the three Supreme Court cases appeared to play a major role in the decisions. Each dealt with relationships between an alleged father and his child. None dealt with grandparents.

In Labine, an illegitimate child in Louisiana made a claim against his father's estate. The father left no will. The father and the mother of the child, who did not marry, had appeared before a state agency of Louisiana. The father formally acknowledged that the child was his. That, under Louisiana law, did not entitle the child to inherit from the father. A statute provided that "(i)llegitimate children, though duly acknowledged, cannot claim the rights of the legitimate child." The exception was that if the father, who acknowledged the child, left no wife or other kin, then the child would inherit instead of there being an escheat to the State.

The statutes of Louisiana provided for forced heirship among legitimate members of a family. Laws also required support among members of the family. Illegitimate children could be adopted, but there was no adoption in Labine.

The opinion in Labine by Mr. Justice Black upheld the Louisiana law. The emphasis was on the state legislature's power "to make rules to establish, protect, and strengthen family life as well as to regulate the disposition of property ...."

While the court indicated that it did not necessarily agree with the statutory scheme, it found nothing in the Fourteenth Amendment which would invalidate the statutes. Mr. Justice Black wrote, "(a)bsent a specific constitutional guarantee, it is for the legislature, not life-tenured judges of this Court, to select from among possible laws."

Mr. Justice Harlan concurred: "With all respect to my dissenting Brethren, I deem little short of frivolous the contention that the Equal Protection Clause prohibits enforcement of marital obligations ...."

Mr. Justice Brennan, for himself and Justices Douglas, White, and Marshall, strongly dissented. Emphasis was placed on the (official) public acknowledgment of the child, and that it was "the prejudice of bygone centuries" which punished the hapless and innocent illegitimate children.

Taking exception to the reference to actions of "life-tenured judges," who had therefore been courageous in the field of equal protection, the dissent found no reasonable basis for the invidious discrimination against illegitimates.

The Supreme Court had the matter again in 1977 in Trimble. As in Labine, there had been formal state action in Illinois which determined the child was the daughter of the father. A court had entered a paternity order which required the father to pay support for the illegitimate daughter.

The Illinois statute authorized inheritance if the parents married and (not or ) the father acknowledged that the child was his. The Illinois Supreme Court had upheld its statute on two grounds. The first basis was the promotion of legitimate family relationships. Mr. Justice Powell opened the court's opinion by saying that, "(a)lthough the (Supreme) court noted that this justification (for the statute) had been accepted in Labine, the opinion (of Mr. Justice Black) contains only the most perfunctory analysis."

The second basis for the holding of the Illinois court was orderly establishment of a method of transmitting property on death when there is not a will. The Supreme Court recognized such a genuine...