LEGITIMATION ACT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 19142, 7 October 1925, Page 14

LEGITIMATION ACT.

HELD TO BE RETROSPECT!VE DECISION BY FULL COURT. [BY telegraph.—press association.] WELLINGTON. Tuesday. The Full Court, Sir Robert Stout, Chief Justice, and Justices Sim, Adams, Reed and Ostler, gave judgment to-day on an originating summons to determine an im port,ant question under the Legitimation Act, 1921. No names were mentioned. "X" died intestate in 1920, leaving an estate of £12,000. He married ia 1863, being childlens when his wife died in 1906. In January, 1913, he had an illegitimate female child, and in May, 1915, married the mother of the child. Three months later a second child, a male, was born. The female was not legitimated during this lifetime of deceased, but legitimation was registered by the mother trader the Legitimation Act in 1921, after the death nf the father. The judgment was that the mother was entitled to obtain legitimation of the child at any time, even although it was after the father's death when the child was legitimated. It is deemed to be legitimated from the date of birth. The Act was undoubtedly intended to be retrospective by the Legislature, therefore the female child is held entitled to share in one-third of the estate with the male child. Costs are to be fixed by the registrar.