You Get Nothing, Jon Snow

Lydia Lockett is an Associate in our Los Angeles office.

The evolving notion of what constitutes "family" continues to pose interesting challenges in the realm of trusts and estates.

Questions arise as to whether blood-relation alone should be sufficient to establish an entitlement to inherit, or whether the decedent's intent to disclaim a parental relationship should outweigh a minor child's need for support.

"Openly Held Out" Standard Refined

These questions presented themselves in the recent California decision of Estate of Britel (2015) 236 Cal. App. 4th 127, 2015 WL 1851074. This case affects the factual showing a nonmarital child must make to establish entitlement to inherit from a parent's estate.

In Britel, Jackie, the mother of a nonmarital child of the decedent sought to establish the child as an heir of her father's intestate estate. Jackie relied on a provision of the California Probate Code that allows a paternity action to be brought posthumously when, among other things, the...