Lanier v. Rains

• Decision Date: 28 June 2007
• Docket Number: No. M2005-00128-SC-R11-CV.,M2005-00128-SC-R11-CV.
• Citation: 229 S.W.3d 656
• Parties: Elizabeth LANIER v. Stephen L. RAINS et al.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

229 S.W.3d 656

Elizabeth LANIER v. Stephen L. RAINS et al.

No. M2005-00128-SC-R11-CV.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

February 2, 2007 Session.

June 28, 2007.

Keith C. Dennen and Rachel C. Nelley, Nashville, Tennessee, for the appellant, Elizabeth Lanier.

Phillips M. Smalling, Byrdstown, Tennessee, and Amy V. Hollars, Livingston, Tennessee, for the appellees, the Estate of Dexter Lyndon Rains, Stephen L. Rains and Jo Ann Rains, Co-Executors.

OPINION

GARY R. WADE, J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which WILLIAM M. BARKER, C.J., and JANICE M. HOLDER and CORNELIA A. CLARK, JJ., joined.

The Petitioner, Elizabeth Lanier ("Petitioner"), sought legitimation after the death of Dexter Lyndon Rains ("Decedent") so as to share in his estate as a pretermitted heir under Tennessee Code Annotated section 32-3-103 (2001). The chancery court sustained a motion to dismiss filed on behalf of the Decedent's estate and the Decedent's wife and son as Co-Executors of the estate ("Defendants"), and the Court of Appeals affirmed. We granted review to resolve the conflict between the ruling of the Court of Appeals and a prior unpublished opinion of that court. Because the Petitioner does not qualify as a pretermitted heir and has not demonstrated a viable claim under our equal protection clause, she is not entitled to share in the estate. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is affirmed in part. The claim for legitimation is remanded to the chancery court for further proceedings because, despite our holding, the Petitioner is entitled to have the opportunity to establish that the Decedent was her father. The judgment of the Court of Appeals, therefore, is reversed in part and remanded.

The Decedent, a successful businessman in the Cumberland Plateau area, died on July 30, 2004. Less than three weeks later, his wife, JoAnn Rains, and their son, Stephen Rains, who had been designated as the co-executors for the estate and were the only named beneficiaries in the Decedent's last will and testament, filed a petition to admit the will to probate. The estate included, among other assets, a bank and an insurance agency. After the will was approved for probate, the Petitioner filed suit to establish paternity. She also lodged a claim for a one-third share of the estate under a statute designed to protect a child born after the making of the parent's will:

(a) A child born after the making of a will, either before or after the death of the testator, . . . not provided for nor disinherited, but only pretermitted, in such will, and not provided for by settlement made by the testator in the testator's lifetime, shall succeed to the same portion of the testator's estate as if the testator had died intestate.

(b) Toward raising the portion of such child, the devisees and legatees and other heirs shall contribute out of the parts devised, or bequeathed to, or settled upon them by the testator, in the proportion borne by their respective devises, legacies, or settlements to the whole estate of the testator.

Tenn.Code Ann. § 32-3-103 (2001) (emphasis added).

The Petitioner, who was born in Putnam County on December 23, 1961, almost forty-three years before the death of the Decedent claimed that the Decedent was her biological father. During his lifetime, the Decedent neither supported the Petitioner nor sought a declaration of legitimation. His will, executed on June 30, 1998, made no mention of the Petitioner. As support for her claim that she could be considered as "born after the making of a will," the Petitioner relied upon an unreported opinion from the Court of Appeals which, under similar circumstances, provided that a judicial decree of paternity and legitimation established the "legal birth" date for purposes of Tennessee Code Annotated section 32-3-103(a) (2001), regardless of the actual date of birth of the claimant. Rose v. Stalcup, No. 140, 1988 WL 69501 (Tenn.Ct.App. July 8, 1988).

The Defendants, who filed an exception to the claim, expressed no personal knowledge of whether the Decedent was the Petitioner's biological father. They did, however, concede that during the lifetime of the Decedent, the Petitioner was purported to be his child. As a defense to the claim, the Defendants relied upon the plain language of the statute, contending that the Petitioner did not qualify as being "born after the making of the will." The Defendants challenged the propriety of the Rose opinion and further asserted that the Decedent had implicitly disinherited the Petitioner by the terms of the will. The Defendants contended that because the Petitioner failed to state a claim for relief under the pretermitted heir statute, her ancillary petition to establish paternity, as merely incidental to the claim of inheritance, should be dismissed.

The chancellor granted a motion to dismiss, observing that "the Legislature [n]ever intended to allow courts to birth children by legitimation and use this fiction to place them within the means of the pretermitted child's statute." After concluding as fact that the Decedent knew about his relationship to the Petitioner, the chancellor relied on the ruling in In re Estate of Eden, 99 S.W.3d 82 (Tenn.Ct. App.1995), in which the Court of Appeals held that a testator who specifically left his property to named individuals disinherited his other heirs by implication, to conclude that the Petitioner was not entitled to inherit from the Decedent. Id. at 93.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment, dismissing the Petitioner's claim of legitimation and determining that she did not qualify as a pretermitted heir. The court specifically declined to follow the ruling in Rose.

STANDARD OF REVIEW AND STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION

A Rule 12.02(6) motion under the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure tests only the legal sufficiency of the complaint, not the strength of the plaintiff's proof. The resolution of the motion is determined by an examination of the complaint alone. Cook ex rel. Uithoven v. Spinnaker's of Rivergate, Inc., 878 S.W.2d 934, 938 (Tenn. 1994) (citing Wolcotts Fin. Serv., Inc. v. McReynolds, 807 S.W.2d 708, 710 (Tenn. Ct.App.1990)). For purposes of analysis, the motion contemplates that all relevant and material allegations in the complaint, even if true and correct, do not constitute a cause of action. In considering a motion to dismiss, courts must construe the assertions in the complaint liberally; the motion cannot be sustained unless it appears that there are no facts warranting relief. Id. (citing Fuerst v. Methodist Hosp. S., 566 S.W.2d 847, 848 (Tenn.1978)). On appeal, all allegations of fact must be taken as true; our scope of review is de novo with no presumption of correctness. Tenn. R.App. P. 13(d); Owens v. Truckstops of Am., 915 S.W.2d 420, 424 (Tenn.1996). Thus, the assumption must be that the Decedent was the biological father of the Petitioner. See Willis v. Tenn. Dep't of Corr., 113 S.W.3d 706, 710 (Tenn.2003).

Whether the Petitioner qualifies as a pretermitted heir is a matter of statutory construction. The interpretation of a statute is a question of law subject to de novo review. Leab v. S & H Mining Co., 76 S.W.3d 344, 348 (Tenn.2002); Bryant v. Genco Stamping & Mfg. Co., 33 S.W.3d 761, 765 (Tenn.2000). We presume that every word in a statute has meaning and purpose; each word should be given full effect if the obvious intention of the General Assembly is not violated by so doing. In re C.K.G., 173 S.W.3d 714, 722 (Tenn. 2005). If the statutory language is clear and unambiguous, we apply its plain meaning in its normal and accepted use, without a forced interpretation that would limit or expand the statute's application. Eastman Chem. Co. v. Johnson, 151 S.W.3d 503, 507 (Tenn.2004). When called upon to construe a statute, the courts must take care not to unduly restrict a statute's application or conversely to expand its coverage beyond its intended scope. Houghton v. Aramark Educ. Res., Inc., 90 S.W.3d 676, 678 (Tenn.2002).

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

Under early English common law, a child born out of wedlock¹ could not inherit from either of his natural parents and had no heirs except his own bodily issue. See Max Stier, Corruption of Blood and Equal Protection: Why the Sins of the Parents Should Not Matter, 44 Stan. L.Rev. 727, 730 n. 15 (1992). This state first deviated from the common law in 1805, enacting a statute allowing a child born out of wedlock to inherit as if born during a marriage if the natural father legitimized the child by decree of the county court. 1805 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 2, § 1; Allen v. Harvey, 568 S.W.2d 829, 832 (Tenn.1978). In 1819, the General Assembly passed legislation permitting a child born out of wedlock to inherit from his mother so long as she was without any legitimate children. 1819 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 13; Turnmire v. Mayes, 121 Tenn. 45, 114 S.W. 478, 479 (Tenn.1908). By 1866, the restriction on inheritance from the child's mother was eliminated by statute. Children born to the same mother shared equal rights to her intestate estate regardless of whether the children were born in or out of marriage. 1866-67 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 36, § 10; Laughlin v. Johnson, 102 Tenn. 455, 52 S.W. 816, 816 (Tenn. 1899).

In 1949, legislation provided that a marriage subsequent to birth served to legitimate the child without the need for a judicial decree. 1949 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 70, § 1. Six years later, a judicial determination of paternity was recognized as an alternative method by which a child could become legitimated for purposes of intestate succession. 1955 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 186, § 13. Finally, in 1978, our General Assembly enacted a statute permitting legitimation by judicial decree either before or after the father's death if paternity is established by clear and convincing proof. 1978 Tenn. Pub. Acts, ch. 763, § 3 (currently codified at Tenn.Code Ann. § 31-2-105) (2001)); see Allen, 568 S.W.2d at 833.

In 1997, the General...