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223 Ind. 561

62 N.E.2d 860

Phillips v. Townsend

Indiana Supreme Court

Decided October 9, 1945

Indiana Supreme Court · decided 1945-10-09

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““* * * We are satisfied with the conclusion reached in the two Appellate Court cases, [cited] It has become a rule of property under the doctrine of stare decisis. * * *””

quoted by 1 later decision, including 149 Ind. App. 549 - In RE EST. OF SCHICK v. Schick

Relies on Wilson v. Bass · Jackson v. Hocke · Truelove v. Truelove

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1945-10-09

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently January 1982

2 state decisions

1019451950196019701980decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

¶1 This appeal presents a single question : May appellant, an illegitimate son, acknowledged by his father, inherit a share of the estate of the father’s sister who survived the father? It was decided against appellant’s claim in Wilson v. Bass (1919), 70 Ind. App. 116, 118 N. E. 379 (Transfer denied), and Hall v. Fivecoat (1942), 110 Ind. App. 704, 38 N. E. (2d) 905. These decisions are supported by the reasoning in Jackson v. Hocke (1908), 171 Ind. 371, 84 N. E. 880 and Truelove v. Truelove (1909), 172 Ind. 441, 86 N. E. 1018. We are satisfied with the conclusion reached in the two Appellate Court cases. It has become a rule of property under the doctrine of stare decisis. Harrow v. Myers (1868), 29 Ind. 469; Dailey v. Pugh (1921), 83 Ind. App. 431, 131 N. E. 836; Stewart v. Wells (1911), 47 Ind. App. 228, 94 N. E. 235. If the statutes of descent so construed are too harsh in the light of modern opinion concerning the rights of illegitimates the remedy is with the legislature.

Richman, C. J.

¶2 Judgment affirmed.

¶3 Note.—Reported in 62 N. E. (2d) 860.

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