Charles Johnson v. Elliott Johnson

The complaint filed in the Domestic Relations Branch of the Municipal Court for the District of Columbia1 alleged that the plaintiffs are the minor children “of the defendant, Charles Johnson, who is their natural father. The *890mother and father of these minor children are not married to each other.” Jurisdiction was said to be “derived” from the Act of April 11, 1956,2 and D.C.Code § 16-415 (1961).3 My colleagues concede, as they must, that section 415 is not applicable, for, as they say, “This statute plainly referred only to legitimate children, that is, those of a husband and wife.” They…