Legal analysis from Dean's Law Dictionary will be displayed here.

This section contains the nature of the case and procedural background.

P is the illegitimate daughter of appellant Jessie Trimble and Sherman Gordon (D). Trimble and Gordon lived in Chicago with P from 1970 until D died in 1974, the victim of a homicide. On January 2, 1973, the Circuit Court had entered a paternity order finding D to be the father of P and ordering him to pay $15 per week for her support. D thereafter supported P in accordance with the paternity order and openly acknowledged her as his child. D died intestate at the age of 28, leaving an estate consisting only of a 1974 Plymouth automobile worth approximately $2,500. Trimble, as the mother and next friend of P, filed a petition for letters of administration. The court entered an order determining heirship, identifying as the only heirs of D his father, Joseph Gordon, his mother, Ethel King, and his brother, two sisters, and a half-brother. The Court excluded P on the authority of the negative implications of § 12 of the Illinois Probate Act, which provides in relevant part: 'An illegitimate child is heir of his mother and of any maternal ancestor, and of any person from whom his mother might have inherited, if living; and the lawful issue of an illegitimate person shall represent such person and take, by descent, any estate which the parent would have taken, if living. A child who was illegitimate whose parents inter-marry and who is acknowledged by the father as the father's child is legitimate.' After a notice of appeal was filed, the Illinois Supreme Court entered an order allowing a direct appeal. It sustained §12 against all constitutional challenges. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.

The legal issues presented in this case will be displayed here.

The court's holding and decision will be displayed here.