Estate of McCullough v. Yates

• Decision Date: 29 April 2010
• Docket Number: No. 2009-CA-00149-SCT.,2009-CA-00149-SCT.
• Citation: 32 So.3d 403
• Parties: In the Matter of the ESTATE OF Thelma M. McCULLOUGH, Deceased. Arlean Morant Leach, Daniel Lawrence Morant, Jr., Linda Ann Morant, Tommy Earl Morant, Carolyn Ann Morant Fairley, Johnny Earl Morant, James Morant, Jr., Jessica Morant and Kendrian Collins v. Geraldine YATES, Administratrix, Jim Hood and State of Mississippi.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

32 So.3d 403

In the Matter of the ESTATE OF Thelma M. McCULLOUGH, Deceased Arlean Morant Leach, Daniel Lawrence Morant, Jr., Linda Ann Morant, Tommy Earl Morant, Carolyn Ann Morant Fairley, Johnny Earl Morant, James Morant, Jr., Jessica Morant and Kendrian Collins v. Geraldine YATES, Administratrix, Jim Hood and State of Mississippi.

No. 2009-CA-00149-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

February 18, 2010.

Rehearing Denied April 29, 2010.

Arin Clark Adkins, Jackson, Nathan Lester Clark, III, Lester Clark, Jr., Lexington, attorneys for appellants.

Office of the Attorney General by Shawn Stephen Shurden, Wilson Douglas Minor, Patricia Ann Catchings, attorneys for appellees.

Before GRAVES, P.J., DICKINSON and CHANDLER, JJ.

CHANDLER, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. In this appeal, the appellants seek a determination that they are the heirs at law of Thelma Morant McCullough (McCullough), deceased, in order receive the assets of her estate through representation. At the time of McCullough's death, she left no surviving spouse, children, or parent. While she was an only child born to James Jefferson Morant and Alice O. Bush, McCullough had five half-siblings through the marriage of her father to Rosetta Johnson in 1937. Daniel Lawrence Morant was McCullough's half-brother and the alleged father of the appellants Arlean Morant Leach, Daniel Lawrence Morant, Jr., Linda Ann Morant, Tommy Earl Morant, Carolyn Ann Morant Fairley, and Johnny Earl Morant; and alleged grandfather of James Morant, Jr., Jessica Morant, and Kendrian Collins (herein after collectively "Leach").¹ Leach, her siblings, and her nieces and nephew are the alleged children and grandchildren of Daniel Lawrence Morant, the half-sibling of McCullough.

¶ 2. McCullough died intestate on October 19, 2003. On January 6, 2004, Geraldine Yates filed a petition to open an estate and a petition for letters of administration in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. The chancery court issued a decree for letters of administration appointing Yates as the administratrix of the estate of Thelma M. McCullough, deceased (the Estate). On February 3, 2004, Yates filed a petition for determination of heirs in the Chancery Court of the First Judicial District of Hinds County, Mississippi. On February 8, 2005, the chancery court filed a judgment determining heirs in estate. The chancellor determined a number of legal heirs and awarded them their respective shares of the Estate.

¶ 3. However, on January 18, 2006, pursuant to a petition to close the Estate, the chancery court, on its own motion, reconsidered its February 8, 2005, judgment. Accordingly, the chancery court reset a hearing to determine heirs for the Estate and requested that all parties be noticed of the proceeding. By order, on January 23, 2006, the chancery court, on its own motion, reopened the case. The chancery court also set aside the judgment determining heirs and set a date to conduct a hearing to determine heirs of the Estate.

¶ 4. The chancery court issued its order and opinion on the petition to determine heirs on November 28, 2006. The order denied the petition for determination of heirs at law and determined that Leach was time-barred from inheriting through Daniel Lawrence Morant pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 91-1-15 and, therefore, she could not inherit from the Estate. See Miss.Code Ann. § 91-1-15 (Rev. 2004). Following the chancery court's order, Leach filed a petition requesting reconsideration of the prior order and, alternatively, contested the constitutionality of Mississippi Code Section 91-1-15. Leach later filed an amended petition requesting reconsideration of the prior order, determination and adjudication of heirship in petitioners, or alternatively, contesting the constitutionality of statute. Because Leach challenged the constitutionality of Section 91-1-15, the Attorney General filed a response to Leach's amended petition.

¶ 5. After this series of events and a number of hearings, the chancery court issued a final judgment and opinion of the court. In its final judgment, the chancery court determined that Leach had failed to meet her burden of proof that there was sufficient evidence to adjudicate Daniel Morant, Sr., as the putative natural father of Leach and her siblings. Pursuant to Mississippi Code Section 91-1-15, an illegitimate child may inherit from his or her natural parent provided certain statutory requirements are met. See Miss.Code Ann. § 91-1-15. The chancery court determined that Leach had failed to prove by any genetic or scientific evidence that Daniel Morant, Sr., was the natural father and that she was time-barred for failure to establish paternity within the time requirements prescribed by Section 91-1-15. Therefore, the chancery court determined that Leach had failed to prove that she and her siblings were the heirs at law of McCullough. The chancery court also determined Leach had failed to prove her constitutional challenge to the validity of Mississippi Code Section 91-1-15 beyond a reasonable doubt. From this January 8, 2008, final judgment and opinion of the court, Leach appeals to this Court. Finding no error, we affirm the chancellor's decision.

FACTS

¶ 6. Thelma Morant McCullough was born November 28, 1911. She died on October 19, 2003, in Hinds County, Mississippi. She married Benjamin McCullough, and they had no children. Benjamin predeceased McCullough.

¶ 7. McCullough was the only child of James Jefferson Morant and Alice O. Bush. However, her father, James Jefferson Morant, married Rosetta Johnson Morant in 1937. James Jefferson Morant and Rosetta had five children: Daniel Lawrence Morant; Arlena Morant Shack; James Jefferson Morant, Jr.; David Richard Morant; and Asbury Benjamin Morant. McCullough's parents, James Jefferson Morant and Alice O. Bush, died in 1948 and 1974, respectively.

¶ 8. Although the record is somewhat unclear, it appears four of McCullough's half-blood siblings died, leaving no children.² James Jefferson Morant died on January 8, 1961; Arlena Morant Shack died in 1966; Asbury Benjamin Morant died sometime in 1985; and David Richard Morant died on February 2, 1991. These siblings predeceased McCullough and had no surviving children.

¶ 9. The chancery court incorrectly found that two of McCullough's half-blood siblings had left surviving heirs.³ Daniel Lawrence Morant died on January 27, 1978, and left seven surviving children: Daniel Morant, Jr; Arlean Morant Leach; Linda Morant; Tommy Morant; Carolyn Morant Fairley; Johnny Morant; and James Morant. James Morant, alleged son of Daniel Lawrence, preceded McCullough in death and left three surviving children: James Morant, Jr.; Jessica Morant Lender; and Kendrian Collins. No adjudication of paternity was ever made with regard to the estate of Daniel Lawrence Morant by his alleged illegitimate children after his death in 1978. In fact, no estate was opened after Daniel Lawrence Morant died, because he allegedly had nothing of value at the time of his death.

¶ 10. On January 6, 2004, Geraldine Yates filed a petition to open the estate and for a letter of administration for the estate of Thelma McCullough, deceased. On February 3, 2004, Yates filed the petition to determine heirs. The chancery court held that adjudication of the paternity of the illegitimate children of Daniel Lawrence Morant was not done within the statutory limits of Mississippi Code Section 91-1-15(3), and for that reason, the claim to the estate of McCullough was barred. Leach now appeals from that decision.

DISCUSSION

¶ 11. In Dr. K.B. v. J.G., 9 So.3d 1124, 1127 (Miss.2009), this Court set out the standard of review for chancery matters, stating that a chancellor's finding of fact will not be overruled by the appellate court when it is supported by substantial evidence, unless the chancellor applied an erroneous legal standard or there was manifest error. Dr. K.B., 9 So.3d at 1127 (citing Grafe v. Olds, 556 So.2d 690, 692 (Miss.1990)). See also Mann v. Buford, 853 So.2d 1217, 1219 (Miss.2003).

I. Mississippi Code Section 91-1-15

¶ 12. Leach argues that the chancery court erred by finding that her claim to be adjudicated an heir was time-barred pursuant to Section 91-1-15. Miss.Code Ann. § 91-1-15 (Rev.2004). Leach contends that her claim accrued at the time of her putative aunt's, McCullough's, death in 2003 and not at the time of her putative father's, Daniel Lawrence Morant's, death in 1978. The chancery court determined that Leach had failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that she and her siblings were the natural children of Daniel Lawrence Morant, therefore, she was unable to inherit from McCullough, Daniel Lawrence Morant's half-sibling, through representation.

¶ 13. Half-blood siblings may inherit under certain statutory restrictions. See Miss.Code Ann. § 91-1-5 (Rev.2004). Section 91-1-5 states "there shall not be, in any case, a distinction between the kindred of the whole and half-blood, except that the kindred of the whole-blood, in equal degree, shall be preferred to the kindred of the half-blood in the same degree." Id. Mississippi law provides for inheritance by collaterals, such as children of half-blood siblings, by representation through the blood relationship of a parent. See Miss.Code Ann. § 91-1-3 (Rev.2004). Section 91-1-3 states:

When any person shall die seized of any estate of inheritance in lands, tenements, and hereditaments not devised, the same shall descend to his or her children, and their descendants, in equal parts, the descendants of the deceased child or grandchild to take the share of the deceased parent in equal parts among them. When there shall not be a child or children of the intestate nor descendants of such children, then to the brothers and sisters and father and mother of the intestate and the descendants of such brothers and sisters in equal parts, the descendants of a sister or brot

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