Eng Khabbaz ex rel. Eng v. Commissioner, Social Security Administration, 155 N.H. 798

Summary

The Supreme Court of New Hampshire answered in the negative a certified question asking whether a child conceived through artificial insemination after her father's death could inherit from him as surviving issue under New Hampshire intestacy law. The court held that the plain meaning and statutory context of RSA 561:1 require an inheriting child to have been alive or in existence when the decedent died. It declined to extend inheritance rights through related statutes or public policy, leaving any change to the legislature.

Holdings

1. A child conceived after the decedent's death is not a surviving issue within the plain meaning of RSA 561:1 and therefore cannot inherit from the decedent under New Hampshire intestacy law.
2. RSA 21:20 does not expand RSA 561:1, II(a) to include issue who were not alive or in existence at the decedent's death because applying that definition would be inconsistent with the manifest legislative intent and context of RSA 561:1.
3. RSA 561:4, RSA chapter 168-B, and the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act do not create an exception to RSA 561:1's surviving-issue requirement, and the court declined to adopt Woodward because doing so would require adding words to the statute.

Questions Presented

1. Whether a child conceived after her father's death through artificial insemination is a surviving issue eligible to inherit from him under New Hampshire intestacy law.
2. Whether the statutory definition of issue in RSA 21:20, the inheritance provisions for children of unwed parents in RSA 561:4, the assisted-reproduction provisions in RSA chapter 168-B, or the Uniform Simultaneous Death Act altered the requirement that intestate heirs be surviving at the decedent's death.
3. Whether the court should adopt the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court's approach in Woodward v. Commissioner of Social Security and permit posthumously conceived children to inherit based on public policy.

Disposition

remanded