California Appeals Court Says That Acknowledged Paternity Gives Man Right To Inherit
According to a California Appeals Court, evidence that a deceased person, while he was alive, acknowledged someone as his biological child on a number of occasions is enough to establish that the decedent and the individual had a father-child relationship for inheritance right purposes under California probate law.
The court was affirming a ruling by the Ventura Superior Court judge, who determined that an Ohio man was entitled to an equal share of his biological father’s estate. His biological father did not leave a will.
In 1971, Dale Agnew was born to Oxnard resident Gregory Burden and Sally Routt. Upon discovering Routt’s pregnancy, Burden proposed marriage and did not deny that he was Agnew’s father. Routt turned down his proposal and married Chris Agnew, who is named as Dale's father on the birth certificate.
Agnew did not know that Burden was his biological father while growing up in Ohio, until he turned 18 and his mother told him about Burden. Agnew later met Burden’s siblings and grandmother. When Agnew spoke with Burden over the phone for the first time, Burden said he was sorry for being an “inactive” father and informed him that he had a half-sister—although Burden did not want Agnew to meet her.
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