Estate of Griswold

Kitchen & Turpin, David C. Turpin and Herb Fox, Santa Barbara, for Objector and Appellant.

Mullen & Henzell and Lawrence T. Sorenson, Santa Barbara, for Petitioner and Respondent.

GILBERT, P.J.

An unmarried woman in Ohio gives birth to a son and then files a "bastardy complaint" against the infant's father. The father admits paternity and the court orders him to pay child support. The father makes all court-ordered support payments to the court clerk until the child is 18 years old.

The father and son never meet or communicate. The father marries and has two children who are unaware that they have a half-brother. The mother marries and moves to California with her infant son and husband.

Fifty-five years later, the son dies intestate leaving a surviving spouse but ostensibly no other heirs. Are the two half-siblings entitled to share in the separate property of the decedent's estate? We conclude the answer is yes.

Heir finder Francis V. See appeals an order denying his petition to determine entitlement to distribution in the estate of Denis Howard Griswold. (Prob.Code, § 11700 et seq.) [1] We reverse.

On October 10, 1996, Denis Howard Griswold died intestate, survived by…