Article on the Supreme Court Deciding Who is a Decedent’s Child

Kristine S. Knaplund (Professor of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law) recently published her article entitled, Will the U.S. Supreme Court Resolve The Issue of “Who Is a Decedent’s Child?”, RPTE eReport (Dec. 2011). The introduction to the article is below:

On August 29, 2011, the 8th Circuit issued its opinion in Beeler v. Astrue, 2011 U.S. App. LEXIS 17983, regarding whether a child conceived more than a year after a deceased wage earner’s death with his express consent is eligible to inherit under state law and thus qualifies as his “child” to receive Social Security survivor’s benefits. This decision overturns the district court ruling for the child, and aligns the 8th Circuit with the Social Security Administration and a number of other U.S. courts in holding that the postmortem conception child must demonstrate that applicable state law entitles him to inherit in intestacy as the decedent’s child. Cases in the 9th Circuit and the 3rd Circuit have taken a contrary view. Now that a petition for certiorari has been filed in a similar case, Capato v. Astrue, the issue is ripe for review by the U.S. Supreme Court.