has a stepfather who formerly lived-in with a certain woman (A). He separated from the woman 5 years ago and he later on married my friend’s mom (B) . Their marriage produced a brother for my friend. So my friend, her mom, her stepfather and her half brother lived happily as one family. The stepfather however, suddenly died in a car crash. My friend was devastated because the stepfather treated her like his own child.
One day, A showed up with a 5-year-old kid and said that her child, born from the union between her and the stepfather, should get an inheritance and that the portion should be larger than what the other two children of B would get. Although it is to be noted that A never told the stepfather that she was pregnant before they separated. To clear up any suspicions, A was willing to have a DNA test done to prove that the 5-year-old kid was indeed the child of the now deceased.
Will the 5 year old child, born of the stepfather and A, have any inheritance even if the deceased never knew he had a child with A? Also, what would the division of the inheritance be between his 5 year old child, my friend, and her half brother?"
/GD
My answer is the 5 year old child cannot claim any inheritance.
To claim filiation, an illegitimate child must submit any of the following: (1) record of birth appearing in the civil register, or a final judgment, (2) An admission in a public document or a private hand written instrument. Neither of which the unknown child had.
There is also the option of using (1) Open and continuous possession of the status of a child, or (2) Other ways allowed by Rules of Court such as baptismal certificate, family bibles, testimony of witnesses etc. . However, for illegitimate child, this must have been done while the father was alive. Now is too late.
Without any acceptable proof of filiation, the child is not recognised even as an illegitimate child, hence not entitled to any inheritance.
As for the division of inheritance, the friend will not get any inheritance either, because she is not an heir of the stepfather absence of a will. She is not related by blood, nor adopted. Only the legitimate child born during the marriage of the step-father and the mom will be entitled to get a share as heir.
Half of the estate will go to the mother first as her conjugal share, the half of the remaining estate will go to the son as his share of inheritance, while the other half will go again to the mother as her inheritance. So the mom gets 3/4 and the son gets 1/4. The friend gets nothing, the 5 year old child gets nothing.
Ana de Duque
ReplyDelete