Code Henry

In default of brothers, sisters, or their descendants, and in default of ascendants in one or the other line, the succession is devolved for one half to the surviving ascendants and for the other half to the nearest relatives of the other line. If there is concurrence of collateral relatives of the same degree, they share per capita.

In the case of the preceding article, the surviving father or mother has the usufruct of one-third of the property to which they do not succeed in ownership.

Relatives beyond the twelfth degree do not inherit. In default of relatives within the heritable degree in one line, the relatives of the other line succeed to the whole.

Natural children are not heirs; the law grants them rights over the property of their deceased father or mother only when they have been legally recognized. The law grants them no rights over the property of their parents' relatives.

The rights of the legally recognized natural child over the property of his deceased father and mother are regulated as follows: If the father or mother left legitimate descendants, the natural child receives one-quarter of the portion allotted to each legitimate child; If the father or mother left no legitimate descendants, the inheritance right is one-half of the succession, the other half being devolved to the ascendants, brothers and sisters, or their descendants, or other relatives within the heritable degree, to be shared among them as prescribed in this title.

In the case of the natural child's prior death, his children or descendants may claim the inheritance right established by the preceding article.

The natural child or his descendants are required to impute against their claim everything they received from the parent whose succession is open, and which would be subject to collation, according to the rules established in Chapter VI, Section on Collation.

The natural child shall succeed to his brothers and sisters; to the descendants of his brothers and sisters, to his uncles and aunts and their collaterals, all born like him out of wedlock, and deceased without children.

The natural child dying without issue or without brothers, sisters, or their descendants, his succession shall devolve upon the father or mother who recognized him, to the prejudice of uncles, aunts, and other collaterals.

When the deceased leaves only legally recognized natural children, without relatives within the heritable degree, half of the succession belongs to the surviving spouse.

If the deceased leaves neither legally recognized natural children nor successible relatives, the entirety of the succession belongs to the surviving spouse.

In default of a surviving spouse, in the cases of the two preceding articles, half the succession shall be acquired by the royal domains in the first case, and the entirety in the second.

A succession may be accepted unconditionally, or under benefit of inventory.

No one is required to accept a succession that has devolved to him.

A succession devolving upon an adult married woman may be validly accepted by her without the authorization of her husband or of the court, in accordance with Article 980, Title XIX; but a minor woman in community of property may accept only with her husband's authorization, or upon his refusal, by judicial order. Successions devolving upon minors or interdicted persons may be accepted only in conformity with Title IX on Minority, Articles 200 and following.

The effect of acceptance dates back to the day of the opening of the succession.

Acceptance is express or tacit; it is express when one assumes the title or quality of heir in an authentic or private act; it is tacit when the heir consents to an act that necessarily implies his intention to accept and which he would have no right to perform except as heir, or when he has performed an act of heirship.

Acts of provisional administration, supervision, or purely conservatory acts are not acts of acceptance of inheritance, if one has not assumed therein the title or quality of heir.

If an heir gives, sells, or transfers his succession rights, whether to all his co-heirs or some of them, or to a third party, this act constitutes acceptance. The same applies to: 1st. The renunciation, even gratuitous, he makes in favor of one or several of his co-heirs; 2nd. The renunciation he makes, even in favor of his co-heirs indiscriminately, if he receives a price for his renunciation.

The heirs of one who died without having expressly or tacitly accepted or repudiated a succession devolved to him have the right, in his place, to repudiate or accept it; if they do not agree on acceptance or repudiation, it shall be accepted under benefit of inventory.