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A recent Tennessee Court of Appeals decision,
In
re: Estate of Ole Irene Tucker, 2015 WL 7068134 (Tenn. Ct. App. 2015), discussed
how a person qualifies as a person born out of wedlock for purposes of
inheriting from a deceased individual in an intestate situation (a situation
without a will). In this case, an
individual claimed to be a grandchild of a deceased individual. A dispute arose as to whether this individual
was actually the child of her purported father (who was the son of the deceased). The question before the Court was whether
this individual had standing to make a claim under the Tennessee intestate
succession laws against the estate. The
trial court issued an order finding that this individual lacked standing and
could not inherit under Tennessee law because she was not considered a person
born out of wedlock under T.C.A.
§ 31-2-105.
On appeal, the Tennessee Court of Appeals
discussed the statute that governs this issue, T.C.A.
§ 31-2-105. This statute provides as
follows:
(a) If, for purposes of intestate succession, a relationship of parent
and child must be established to determine succession by, through, or from a
person:
(1) An adopted person is the child of an adopting parent and not of the
natural parents except that adoption of a child by the spouse of a natural
parent has no effect on the relationship between the child and that natural
parent; and
(2) In cases not covered by subdivision (a)(1), a person born out of
wedlock is a child of the mother. That person is also a child of the father,
if:
(A) The natural parents participated in a marriage ceremony before or
after the birth of the child, even though the attempted marriage is void; or
(B) The paternity is established by an adjudication before the death of
the father or is established thereafter by clear and convincing proof, but the
paternity established under this subdivision (a)(2)(B) is ineffective to
qualify the father or the father's kindred to inherit from or through the child
unless the father has openly treated the child as the father's, and has not
refused to support the child.
(b) In no event shall a parent be permitted to inherit through intestate
succession until all child support arrearages together with interest thereon at
the legal rate of interest computed from the date each payment was due have
been paid in full to the parent ordered to receive support or to the parent's
estate if deceased.
(c) Nothing in this section shall be construed to prevent a child from
inheriting from a parent through intestate succession.
The Court then reviewed the prior case law
and found the following:
Applying In re:
Estate of Armstrong, Ms. Allen is a person born out of wedlock if Ewell
Stephens Johnson was her biological father and he and Ms. Allen's mother were
not and never had been married to each other at the time of Ms. Allen's birth.
This is so even though Ms. Allen's mother was married to another man when Ms.
Allen was born. If Ewell Stephens Johnson was Ms. Allen's biological father,
she qualifies as a child born out of wedlock for purposes of Tenn. Code Ann. §
31–2–105, and we, therefore, find and
hold that she does not lack standing to assert a claim of inheritance to the
Estate by intestate succession through Ewell Stephens Johnson. We, therefore,
remand this case to the Trial Court for a determination of whether Ms. Allen
proved by clear and convincing evidence pursuant to Tenn.Code Ann. § 31–2–105
that Ewell Stephens Johnson was her biological father.
As a result, as long as an individual
establishes to the trial court that by “clear and convincing evidence” the
deceased is their biological father, then an individual born out of wedlock can
still inherit under Tennessee intestate succession laws. This shows that there certainly is a path
under Tennessee law to establish standing in an intestate matter for a person
who was born out of wedlock. However,
they must prove their relationship by clearing and convincing evidence in
compliance with T.C.A.
§ 31-2-105.
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