Jackson v. Jackson
| Decision Date | 27 March 1880 |
| Citation | 78 Ky. 390 |
| Parties | Jackson v. Jackson. |
| Court | Kentucky Court of Appeals |
APPEAL FROM DAVIESS CIRCUIT COURT.
OWEN & ELLIS FOR APPELLANT.
C. K. THARP FOR APPELLEE.
JUDGE COFER DELIVERED THE OPINION OF THE COURT.
It must now be regarded as the settled law of this state that a bastard cannot inherit from collateral from whom his mother, if living, would have inherited. (Allen v. Ramsey, 1 Met., 635, and authorities there cited; Berry v. Owens, 5 Bush.)
And it would seem to follow, as a necessary logical sequence, that he cannot inherit from the ancestors of his mother.
The language of the statute is, that "bastards shall be capable of inheriting and transmitting an inheritance on the part of or to the mother."
In the decisions heretofore rendered to the effect that a bastard cannot inherit from collateral through the mother, the words "on the part of the mother" have been held not to be equivalent to the words "through the mother." In other words, "on the part of" the mother seem to have been regarded as signifying no more than "from the mother." And this construction is somewhat fortified by the fact that a bastard can only transmit an inheritance in the ascending line "to his mother."
There are some expressions in Scroggins v. Allen, 2 Dana, 363; Remmington v. Lewis, 8 B. Mon., 606, and Allen v. Ramsay, 1 Met., 635, which seem to indicate that a bastard may inherit through his mother from her ancestors; but no such question was presented in any of the cases, and it seems unreasonable to suppose that the legislature intended to give to an illegitimate the right to inherit through his mother from the mother's ancestors and not from her collateral; and, in order to preserve harmony in the construction of the statute, we are compelled to hold that a bastard can not inherit through his mother from her ancestors.
Counsel cite cases from the decisions of other states, some of them construing statutes not very dissimilar to our own, in which a different conclusion has been reached, and one (Dickinson's Appeal, 42 Conn., 491) in which the whole common law doctrine in respect to the incapacity of bastards to inherit from and through their mothers is rejected, without the aid of a statute.
But, on the other hand, the interpretation given to our statute in former decisions is supported by the decision of the supreme court of the United States in Stephenson v. Sullivant, 5 Wheat., 207, and by the supreme court of Massachusetts. (Curtis v....
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State v. Chavez
...must hold that an illegitimate child cannot inherit through his deceased mother, but only from her; and cite in support Jackson v. Jackson, 78 Ky. 390, 39 Am.Rep. 246; Thigpen v. Thigpen et al., 136 Ga. 541, 71 S.E. 790; Burris v. Burgett et al., 16 Del.Ch. 10, 139 A. 454; Voorhees v. Sharp......
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State v. Chavez
...must hold that an illegitimate child cannot inherit through his deceased mother, but only from her; and cite in support Jackson v. Jackson, 78 Ky. 390, 39 Am.Rep. 246; Thigpen v. Thigpen et al., 136 Ga. 541, 71 S.E. 790; Burris v. Burgett et al., 16 Del.Ch. 10, 139 A. 454; Voorhees v. Sharp......
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Moore v. Moore
...v. Barker, supra; Grubbs' App., supra; Steckel's App., supra; Remington v. Lewis, supra; Brown v. Kerby, 9 Humphrey (Tenn.) 460; Jackson v. Jackson, 78 Ky. 390; Williams Kimball, 35 Fla. 49; Croan v. Phelps, 14 Ky. Law 915; Stevenson v. Sullivant, supra; Hogan v. Hogan, 44 S.W. 953; Johnson......
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Hardesty v. Mitchell, 14212.
...in Stevenson's Heirs v. Sullivant, supra. Scroggin v. Allan, 2 Dana, (Ky.) 363;Remmington v. Lewis, 8 B. Mon. (Ky.) 606;Jackson v. Jackson, 78 Ky. 390, 39 Am. Rep. 246. The same construction was given to a statute substantially the same in Little v. Lake, 8 Ohio, 289, and in Williams v. Kim......