Posthumous Child

One born after the death of its father, or, when the Caesarian operation is performed, after that of the mother. POSTLIMINIUM (Lat. from post, after, and limen, a threshold). In the Civil Law. The return or res- A fiction applied in the case of a person who had been taken prisoner by an enemy, and afterwards returned from captivity, by which he was supposed never to have been abroad, and was on this ground restored to his former rights. Postliminium fingit eum qui captus est in civitate semper fuisse, postliminy supposes that he who was taken prisoner had always been in the state. Inst. 1. 12. 5. See Dig. 49. 15. Postlim,inium included things as well as persons. Paulus, in the Digests, defines it to be jus amissae rei redpiendae ab extraneo, et in statum, pristinum restituendae, inter nos ac liberos populos regesque moribus, legibus constitutum. Nam quod bello amisimus, aut etiam citra bellum, hoe si rursus.redpia/mus dicimur postliminio recipere, the right of receiving a lost thing from a foreigner, and of restoring it to its former state, established between us and free nations and kings, by customs and by laws. For whatever we have lost in war, or even not in war, if we receive it again, we are said to receive it postliminio. Dig. 49. 15. 19, pr. Postliminium is thus analyzed and explained in the Institutes: It is called postliminium from limjen (threshold), and post (after). ' Wherefore we properly say of one who was taken by an enemy, and afterwards came into our borders or limits, that he has returned postliminio. For as the threshold of a house makes, as it were, the limit or boundary of it, so the ancients chose to call the boundary or border of the empire its threshold. Hence limen (a threshold) came to be used in the sense of a limit {finis), and boundary (terminus). And hence the word postliminium, was framed, and used to signify that a person had returned to the same threshold which he had lost; ab eo postliminium, dictum, est, quia ad idem limen revertebatur quod amiserat. So that now a prisoner who is recovered from an enemy, and returns home, is supposed to have returned in postliminy, that is, in the way explained. Inst. 1. 12. 5. In the Law of Nations. A right whicli arises from a return mi limen, that is, to the borders of one's country. Grotius de Jur. Belli, lib. 3, c. 9, § 2. A term derived from the Roman law, and extensively used in public law. See its etymology explained by Grotius de Jure Belli lib. 3, c. 9, § 1. See his whole chapter, "De Postliminio." The term is used in maritime law. See Locc. de Jur. Mar. lib. 2, c. 4. POSTLIMINIUM FINGIT EUM QUI CAPtus est in civitate semper fuisse. Postliminy feigns that he who has been captured has never left the state. Inst. 1. 12. 5; Dig. 49. 15.

One bom after the death of its father; or, when the Caesarean operation is performed, after that of the mother. The doctrine is universally adopted throughout the United States, that posthumous children inherit in the same manner a^s if born during the father’s life; and this relates back to the conception of the child, if it is born alive; 3 Washb. R. P. ♦412; Jenkins v. Freyer, 4 Paige (N. Y.) 52; Barker v. Pearce, 30 Pa. 173, 72 Am. Dec. 691. The court will allow a longer time than nine months for the birth of the child, when the opinion of physicians, or circumstances warrant it; 2 Greenl. Cruise, R. P. 140. When a father makes a will without providing for a posthumous child, the will is generally considered as revoked pro tanto; 3 Washb. R. P. 699, 412; 4 Kent 412, 521, 525; Shotts v. Poe, 47 Md. 513, 28 Am. Rep. 486; Wilson v. Ott, 160 Pa. 433, 28 Atl. 848; where it is governed by statute. In most of the states there are statutes providing that in case of future estates or remainders limited to heirs, issue, or children of any person, posthumous children take as if living at tlje death of the parent without the limitation of an estate to support contingent remainders; and most of such statutes also provide that the future estate limited to take effect on the death of a person without heirs, etc., is defeated by the birth of a posthumous child. In a few states the time within which such child must be bom is limited to ten months after the death of the father. See Belton v. Summer, 31 Fla. 139, 12 South. 371, 21 L. R. A. 146; Legacy; En Ventbe sa M£re. POSTLIMINIUM (La t. from post, after, and limen, threshold). A fiction of the civil law, by which persons or things taken by the enemy were restored to their former status on coming again under the power of the nation to which they formerly belonged. Calvinus, Lex.; 1 Kent 108. It is also recognized by the law of nations. But movables are not entitled to the benefit of this rule, by strict law of nations', unless promptly recaptured. nations, to revest in the owner, upon payment of military salvage; Risley, Law ol War 143. The rule does not affect property which is brought into a neutral territory; 1 Kent 108. It is so called from the return of the person or thing over the threshold or boundary of the country from which it was taken. When an enemy’s military occupation comes to an end, the legal state of things previously existing is deemed to have been in continuous existence during the occupation. Postliminium applies to territory, to private immovable property, and to every kind of property that may not lawfully be seized. But property, public or private, that has been lawfully taken by an enemy, is not subject to the fiction. Acts done once and for all, within an invader’s competence to perform, hold good. There is no postliminium as regards lawful prize, though it is said there may be by recapture; which, if it occur before capture is complete, may have effects like those of postliminium, though the latter fiction does not include any idea of salvage; Risley, Law of War 143. The jus postliminii in international law is derived from a similar tbrm in the Roman law by which persons and property captured by an enemy and then recaptured are restored to their original owner. The term now applies almost exclusively to property both real and personal which when recaptured does not belong to the recaptor but to the original owner. Snow, Int. Law 116. It is important to observe the distinction between the effects of postliminium according to municipal law and those according to international law. Municipal law determines the conditions upon which private property shall revert to its former owners when it is brought again within the power of the state of which its former owners are citizens. International law determines the general international status of territory, persons and property which, having been under the control of the enemy, come again under the control of their original sovereign. II Opp. §§ 279-284.

is one born after the death of its father, or when the czesarian operation is performed, after that of the mother. Posthumous children are entitled to take by descent as if they had been born at the time of their deceased ancestor.. Whena father has made a will without providing for a posthumous child, such a will is in some states, as in Pennsylvania, revoked Com. h. t.; Domat, Lois Civiles, part 2, liv. 2,t.1, 8.1; Merl. Rep. h. t.