Doner-Griswold v. See

Summary

The California Supreme Court considered whether Probate Code section 6452 barred the half siblings of a person born out of wedlock from inheriting through that person. The court held that the decedent’s natural father acknowledged paternity by confessing it in an Ohio court and satisfied the statutory support requirement by paying court-ordered child support, even though he never had contact with the child. Accordingly, section 6452 did not bar the half siblings from sharing in the decedent’s intestate estate.

Holdings

1. A father's knowing and voluntary confession of paternity in a court proceeding satisfies section 6452's acknowledgment requirement, even when the father and child never had personal contact and the father did not disclose the child to his other children, absent evidence of subsequent disavowal or purposeful concealment.
2. The 1941 Ohio bastardy judgment was a court order entered during Draves's lifetime declaring paternity and established Draves as Griswold's natural parent for purposes of Probate Code sections 6452 and 6453.
3. Section 6452 does not categorically bar inheritance by a natural parent's relatives merely because the relatives had no contact with, or were unknown to, the deceased child, where the statutory acknowledgment and support requirements were satisfied.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Draves's in-court confession of paternity constituted an acknowledgment of Griswold under Probate Code section 6452.
2. Whether the 1941 Ohio bastardy judgment established Draves as Griswold's natural parent under Probate Code section 6453, subdivision (b)(1), for purposes of intestate succession.
3. Whether the absence of contact or communication between Griswold and Draves or Draves's other children precluded the half siblings from inheriting through Draves under Probate Code section 6452.

Disposition

affirmed