204 S.W. 317 | Tex. | 1918
The material facts showed that in 1879 Nathan Harle, who was then the husband of Gracie Ann Harle, and Freeman Slaughter, who was then the husband of Amanda Slaughter, acquired by purchase the 160 acres of land in controversy. By a marriage prior to that with Gracie Ann Harle, Nathan Harle had three children named Bruff Harle, John Harle and Amanda Slaughter. Under a partition between Nathan Harle and Freeman Slaughter, 40 acres of the land was set apart to Freeman Slaughter, and the remaining 120 acres was set apart to Nathan Harle. Out of the 120 acres, Nathan Harle and Gracie Ann Harle conveyed 60 acres to John Harle. Gracie Ann Harle had no *217 children, but she adopted, in compliance with the Texas statute, Mary Ann Richardson, who married Wash McGriff, and Wash McGriff and his three children by Mary Ann McGriff are termed herein the McGriff heirs. Mary Ann McGriff died intestate and at a later date Gracie Ann Harle also died intestate.
This suit was brought in the District Court of Navarro County by Nathan Harle against Bruff Harle, John Harle and Freeman Slaughter, to try the title to the entire 160 acres of land. The McGriff heirs and the children of Amanda Slaughter, deceased, intervened in the suit. On a verdict directed by the court, Freeman Slaughter recovered the 40 acres, which had been partitioned to him, subject to the rights of the children of Amanda Slaughter; John Harle recovered the 60 acres, which had been conveyed to him; and Nathan Harle recovered the remainder of the land sued for. The Court of Civil Appeals affirmed the judgment of the trial court, save as to the McGriff heirs, and, with respect to them, that court reversed the judgment of the trial court and rendered judgment in their favor for an undivided half of the land adjudged below to Nathan Harle.
The land in controversy, being a part of the community estate of Nathan Harle and Gracie Ann Harle, passed under article 2469 of the Revised Statutes, on the dissolution of the marriage relation between Nathan Harle and Gracie Ann Harle by the latter's death, to Nathan Harle as survivor, unless descendants of a child or children of Gracie Ann Harle survived her. The Court of Civil Appeals concluded that the mother of the McGriff heirs, as the adopted heir of Gracie Ann Harle, acquired the legal status of a child and that hence the McGriff heirs were descendants of a child, within the meaning of article 2469.
It seems clear to us that the words "child or children of the deceased or their descendants," as used in article 2469, can not be interpreted to include adopted heirs and their issue. For, as was said in Burgess v. Hargrove,
In Morse v. Osborne, 30 L.R.A. (N.S.), 914 (
The Supreme Court of Illinois reached a similar conclusion when it said in Keegan v. Geraghty,
The Supreme Court of Vermont was called upon to determine the status of one Amanda M. Pennock, who had been constituted by an Act of the Legislature "heir at law of John B. and Sally Dunbar . . . in as full and perfect a manner as if she had been a daughter of the said John B. and Sally Dunbar born in lawful wedlock," and it was held that "she is merely made heir at law of Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar to share as their child. It is not enacted that she is their child; or that she is to be considered, and taken in law, to be their child. . . . We can not go farther than the statute, which merely authorizes her to take directly as heir from Mr. and Mrs. Dunbar. Moore v. Estate of Moore,
As announced in Eckford v. Knox,
The opinion of Chief Justice Willie in Eckford v. Knox has been followed in the case of Walton, Tax Collector, v. Yturria (post),
this day decided by this court, wherein it was determined that an adopted person was not a direct lineal descendant of his adopter, and that such person did not acquire the status of a child of his adopter. The doctrine announced in Eckford v. Knox had previously been reaffirmed in Taylor v. Deseve,
Under our construction of the statutes we do not deny the adopted person any of "the rights and privileges, both in law and equity of a legal heir of the party so adopting him," to which he is entitled under article 2, Revised Statutes, but we do not extend the statute so as to confer rights and privileges in the estate of the adopter on others than the person adopted. The right to inherit from Gracie Ann Harle was given to the person she adopted. When that person died before Gracie Ann Harle, the latter's estate could not pass to her. The adopted person acquired no right, through her adoption, to be represented by her heirs in the distribution of the adopter's estate. For, it is the settled law in Texas that when children of a deceased child inherit from a parent of such child, under our statutes of descent, they take not through or by representation of the parent but directly from the deceased. Chief Justice Gaines, in delivering the opinion in Powers v. Morrison,
Article 2466, Revised Statutes, appears to expressly forbid recognizing any right of inheritance in the McGriff heirs, they not being "children or lineal descendants of the intestate"; for the article denies the right of inheritance to any persons whatsoever other than to children or lineal descendants of the intestate unless they are in being and unless they are also "capable in law to take as heirs" at the time of the death of the intestate, and we have no statute conferring any right of inheritance in the estate of an adopter on the children or descendants of the adopted person. Yet, "the right of succession in this State is the creature of statutory law." Powers v. Morrison,
There are decisions of other States upholding the right of children of an adopted person to inherit from the adopter. But, as pointed out in Bernero v. Goodwin,
In our opinion, neither of these propositions should have controlling weight in construing our statutes. As pointed out in Eckford v. Knox, the civil law doctrine was so modified by the terms of our adoption statute as to preclude giving children of an adopted person the status *220 of grandchildren of the adopter. And, it would be utterly inconsistent with the principles enunciated in Powers v. Morrison to extend to the children of adopted persons, by means of representation, a right of inheritance in the estate of their parent's adopter.
We have considered the assignments of all parties, and find no error in the action of the District Court or Court of Civil Appeals save as indicated above.
We fully appreciate the importance of this decision and have given it commensurate consideration.
The judgment of the Court of Civil Appeals is reversed and that of the District Court is affirmed.
Reversed and judgment of District Court affirmed.