Table of Contents

TITLE VII - OF FATHER AND CHILD

 

CHAPTER I - OF CHILDREN IN GENERAL

Art. 1. Children are either legitimate or illegitimate.

Art. 2. Legitimate children are those who are born during the marriage.

Art. 3. Illegitimate children are those who are born out of marriage.

Art. 4. There are two sorts of illegitimate children; to wit:-
Those who are born from two persons, who at the moment when said children were conceived, might have been duly married together; and those who are born from persons to whose marriage there existed at the time, some legal impediment.
Adulterous and incestuous bastards belong to this last class.

Art. 5. Adulterous bastards are those who are born from an unlawful connection between two persons who at the time when the child was conceived, were either of them or both connected by marriage with some other person.

Art. 6. Incestuous bastards are those who are born from the illegal connection of two persons who are relations within the degrees prohibited by law.

 

CHAPTER II - OF LEGITIMATE CHILDREN

 

SECTION I - OF LEGITIMACY RESULTING FROM MARRIAGE

Art. 7. The law considers the husband of the mother as the father of all children conceived during the marriage.
The law admits neither the exception of the wife's adultery nor the allegation of the husband's natural or accidental impotency.

Art. 8. The child who is born previous to the one hundred and eightieth day of marriage is not presumed to be the child of such marriage.

Art. 9. It is the same with respect to the child born three hundred days after the dissolution of the marriage or after the sentence of separation from bed and board.

Art. 10. The legitimacy of the child born three hundred days after the separation from bed and board, has been decreed, may be contested, unless it be proved that access has taken place between the husband and wife, since such decree, because it is always presumed that the parties have obeyed the sentence of separation.
But in case of voluntary separation, access is always presumed unless the contrary be proved.

Art. 11. The presumption of the paternity as an incident to the marriage, is also at an end, when the remoteness of the husband from the wife, has been such that co-habitation has been physically impossible.

Art. 12. The husband cannot contest the legitimacy of the child born previous to the one hundred and eightieth day of marriage in the following cases:-
1stly, If he was acquainted with the circumstance of his wife being pregnant previously to the marriage.
2ndly, If he was present at the registering of the birth or baptism of said child, and signed the same, or if not knowing how to sign, he has put his ordinary mark to it, in presence of two witnesses.
3rdly, If the child is born unable to live.

Art. 13. In all the cases above enumerated, where the presumption of paternity ceases, the father, if he intends to dispute the legitimacy of the child, shall do it within one month, if he happens to be in the place where the child is born, or within two months after his return, if he happened to be absent at that time, or within two months after the discovery of the fraud, if the birth of the child had been concealed from him, and in defect thereof he shall be barred against such claim.

Art. 14. If the husband died previous to his having made such claim, before the expiration of the time directed by law, two months shall be granted to his heirs to contest the legitimacy of the child, from the time when the said child may have taken possession of the estate of the husband or when the heirs shall have been disturbed by the said child, in their possession of the said estate.

 

SECTION II - OF THE MANNER OF PROVING THE LEGITIMATE FILIATION

Art. 15. The filiation of legitimate children may be proved by a transcript from the register of birth or baptism kept agreeable to law or to the usages of the land.

Art. 16. If the register of births and baptisms is lost, or if no such register has been kept, it suffices for the child to shew that he has been constantly considered as a child born during the marriage.

Art. 17. The being considered in this capacity is proved by a sufficient collection of facts demonstrating the connexion of filiation and paternity which exists between an individual and the family to which he belongs.
The most material of these facts are:
That such individual has always been called by the name of the father from whom he pretends to be born.
That the said father treated him as his child and that he provided as such for his education, maintenance and settlement in life.
That he has constantly been acknowledged as such in the world.
That he has been acknowledged as such within the family.
But the concurrence of this last circumstance is not always necessarily required.

Art. 18. If there be neither registers of birth or baptism, nor this general reputation, or if the child has been registered under a false name, or has been born of unknown parents, also if the child has been exposed or abandoned, or if his condition has been suppressed, the proof of legitimate filiation may be made either by written or oral evidence.

Art. 19. The proof against the legitimate filiation may be made by evidence that the plaintiff is not the child of the mother whom he pretends to be his, and the maternity being proved that he is not the child of the husband of his mother.

Art. 20. When a widow is suspected to feign herself with child, in order to maintain herself in the possession of the estate of her husband, by the supposition of a pretended heir, the presumptive heir or heirs of the husband may obtain from the judge, an order that she may be examined by matrons appointed for that purpose, in order to discover whether she is with child or not, and if she is, to keep her under proper restraint till delivered.
And if the widow be, upon examination, found not pregnant, the presumptive heir or heirs of the husband shall be put into a provisional possession of the inheritance, upon their giving security to return the same, if the widow should be delivered of a child able to live, within the time prescribed by law, after the death of her husband.




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