Wirringer

This is an appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiffs and the order denying defendant’s motion for a new trial.

The action was brought to recover a sum of money under a decree of distribution entered in the superior court of Santa Cruz county in the estate of one Sebastian Holzfurtner, deceased. The order settling the final account and decree of distribution are contained in one order or decree, which is attached to and made a part of the complaint; and the solution of the controversy in this ease depends upon the effect to be given to this decree.

It appears from the decree that said decedent died intestate on the twenty-eighth day of April, 1899, a resident of Santa Cruz county; that he was never married, but left surviving two children of him born out of wedlock, the plaintiffs herein. That before his death he in writing, signed in the presence of at least two competent witnesses, acknowledged himself to be the father of said plaintiffs herein. That he left no other children surviving him, and that the plaintiffs herein were his only heirs at law. The court accordingly distributed the residue of said estate in equal shares to the plaintiffs herein.

In that part of the…