Estate of McCully
Superior Court of Pennsylvania
Appeal, No. 82, Oct. T., 1899, by Lizzie Graham et al., from decree of O. C. Phila. Co., Oct. T., 1897, No. 108, dismissing exceptions to adjudication of the «orphans’ court declaring an escheat. Exceptions to adjudication. Before the court in banc. At the audit, Ashman, J., filed the following adjudication: Amanda MeCully, who was sometimes known as Maud Hud■dell, died at Philadelphia, April 13, 1896, intestate, unmarried and without issue.
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Appeal, No. 82, Oct. T., 1899, by Lizzie Graham et al., from decree of O. C. Phila. Co., Oct. T., 1897, No. 108, dismissing exceptions to adjudication of the «orphans’ court declaring an escheat. Exceptions to adjudication. Before the court in banc. At the audit, Ashman, J., filed the following adjudication: Amanda MeCully, who was sometimes known as Maud Hud■dell, died at Philadelphia, April 13, 1896, intestate, unmarried and without issue. According to the testimony of the accountant, whose affidavit is attached, the decedent was fifty-two years -old at her death and was the illegitimate…
1Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Beaver, J.,
A single question is presented by the several assignments of error in this case. Is there, under the statutes of Pennsylvania, a right of inheritance by legitimate children from an illegitimate child of the same mother ? The status of an illegitimate child at the common law is thus stated by Blackstone: “ The incapacity of a bastard consists principally in this, that he cannot be an heir to any one, neither can he have heirs but of his own body, for, being nullius films, he is, therefore, of kin to nobody and has no ancestor from whom any inheritable blood can be…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Steckel's AppealSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1870
- Woltemate's AppealSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1878
- Opdyke's AppealSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1865
- Grubb's AppealSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1868