Sec. 41. MATTERS AFFECTING AND NOT AFFECTING THE RIGHT TO INHERIT    


Latest version.
  • (a) Persons Not in Being. No right of inheritance shall accrue to any persons other than to children or lineal descendants of the intestate, unless they are in being and capable in law to take as heirs at the time of the death of the intestate.

    (b) Heirs of Whole and Half Blood. In situations where the inheritance passes to the collateral kindred of the intestate, if part of such collateral be of the whole blood, and the other part be of the half blood only, of the intestate, each of those of half blood shall inherit only half so much as each of those of the whole blood; but if all be of the half blood, they shall have whole portions.

    (c) Alienage. No person is disqualified to take as an heir because he or a person through whom he claims is or has been an alien.

    (d) Convicted Persons and Suicides. No conviction shall work corruption of blood or forfeiture of estate, except in the case of a beneficiary in a life insurance policy or contract who is convicted and sentenced as a principal or accomplice in wilfully bringing about the death of the insured, in which case the proceeds of such insurance policy or contract shall be paid as provided in the Insurance Code of this State, as same now exists or is hereafter amended; nor shall there be any forfeiture by reason of death by casualty; and the estates of those who destroy their own lives shall descend or vest as in the case of natural death.

    (e) Parent-Child Relationship. A probate court may declare that the parent of a child under 18 years of age may not inherit from or through the child under the laws of descent and distribution if the court finds by clear and convincing evidence that the parent has:

    (1) voluntarily abandoned and failed to support the child in accordance with the parent's obligation or ability for at least three years before the date of the child's death, and did not resume support for the child before that date;

    (2) voluntarily and with knowledge of the pregnancy, abandoned the mother of the child beginning at a time during her pregnancy with the child and continuing through the birth, failed to provide adequate support or medical care for the mother during the period of abandonment before the birth of the child, and remained apart from and failed to support the child since birth; or

    (3) been convicted or has been placed on community supervision, including deferred adjudication community supervision, for being criminally responsible for the death or serious injury of a child under the following sections of the Penal Code or adjudicated under Title 3, Family Code, for conduct that caused the death or serious injury of a child and that would constitute a violation of one of the following sections of the Penal Code:

    (A) Section 19.02 (murder);

    (B) Section 19.03 (capital murder);

    (C) Section 19.04 (manslaughter);

    (D) Section 21.11 (indecency with a child);

    (E) Section 22.01 (assault);

    (F) Section 22.011 (sexual assault);

    (G) Section 22.02 (aggravated assault);

    (H) Section 22.021 (aggravated sexual assault);

    (I) Section 22.04 (injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual);

    (J) Section 22.041 (abandoning or endangering child);

    (K) Section 25.02 (prohibited sexual conduct);

    (L) Section 43.25 (sexual performance by a child); or

    (M) Section 43.26 (possession or promotion of child pornography).

    (f) Treatment of Certain Relationships. On a determination that the parent of a child may not inherit from or through the child under Subsection (e) of this section, the parent shall be treated as if the parent predeceased the child for purposes of:

    (1) inheritance under the laws of descent and distribution; and

    (2) any other cause of action based on parentage.

Acts 1955, 54th Leg., p. 88, ch. 55, eff. Jan. 1, 1956. Amended by Acts 1969, 61st Leg., p. 1922, ch. 641, Sec. 2, eff. June 12, 1969. Amended by: Acts 2007, 80th Leg., R.S., Ch. 1412 , Sec. 2, eff. September 1, 2007.