CHAPTER XXI.

DESCENTS.

Sec. 940. CHILDREN. On the death of any person seized of an estate in fee simple in lands, tenements, or hereditaments in the District of Columbia, and intestate thereof, the same shall descend in fee simple to such person's kindred in the following order, namely: First. To his child or children and their descendants, if any, equally.

Sec. 941. ESTATE DESCENDED FROM FATHER. -If there be no child or descendant of a child, and the estate descended to the intestate on the part of the father, then to the brothers and sisters of the intestate, of the blood of the father, and their descendants equally.

Sec. 942. If there be no brother or sister, as aforesaid, or descendant from a brother or sister, then to the grandfather on the part of the father; and if no such grandfather living, then to the descendants of such grandfather and their descendants in equal degree equally; and if no descendant of such grandfather, then to the father of such grandfather, and if none such living, then to the descendants of such father in equal degree; and so on, passing to the next lineal male paternal ancestor, and if none such, to his descendants in equal degree equally, without end.

Sec. 943. If there be no paternal ancestor or descendant from such ancestor, then to the mother of the intestate, and if no mother living, then to her descendants in equal degree equally.

Sec. 944. If there be no mother living, or descendants from such mother, then to the maternal ancestors and their descendants, in the same manner as is above directed as to the paternal ancestors and their descendants.

Sec. 945. ESTATE DESCENDED FROM MOTHER.-If the estate descended to the intestate on the part of the mother, and said intestate shall leave no child or descendant of a child surviving him, then the estate shall go to his brothers and sisters, of the blood of the mother, and their descendants in equal degree equally.

Sec. 946. If there be no such brother or sister or descendant of such brother or sister, then to the grandfather on the part of the mother, and if no such grandfather living, then to his descendants in equal degree equally; if no.such descendant of such grandfather, then to the father of such grandfather, and if none such living, then to his descendants in equal degree; and so on, passing to the next male maternal ancestor, and, if none such living, to his descendants in equal degree equally.

Sec. 947. If there be no such maternal ancestor or descendant from such maternal ancestor, then to the father, and if no father living, then

to his descendants in equal degree equally; and if no father or descendant from the father, then to the paternal ancestors and their descendants, in the same manner as herein before directed as to the maternal ancestors.

Sec. 948. ESTATE ACQUIRED BY PURCHASE. -If the estate was acquired by the intestate by purchase, or descended to or vested in him in any other manner than as hereinbefore mentioned, and there be no child or descendant of a child of such intestate, then the estate shall descend to his brothers and sisters of the whole blood and their descendants in equal degree equally.

Sec. 949. HALF-BLOOD BROTHERS AND SISTERS.-If there be no brother or sister of the whole blood, or descendant of such brother or sister, then to the brothers and sisters of the half blood and their descendants in equal degree equally.

Sec. 950. PATERNAL AND MATERNAL ANCESTORS ALTERNATELY.—If there be no brother or sister of the whole or the half blood, or any descendant from such, then to the father, and if no father living, then to the mother, and if no mother living, then to the grandfather on the part of the father, and if no such grandfather living, then to the descendants of such grandfather in equal degree equally; and if no such grandfather or any descendant from him, then to the grandfather on the part of the mother, and if no such grandfather, then to his descendants in equal degree equally; and so on without end, alternating the next male paternal ancestor and his descendants, and the next male maternal ancestor and his descendants, and giving preference to the paternal ancestor and his descendants.

Sec. 951. HUSBAND AND WIFE.-If there be no descendants or kindred of the intestate, as aforesaid, to take the estate, then the same shall go to the husband or wife, if any, as the case may be; and if the husband or wife be dead, then to his or her kindred, in the like course as if such husband or wife had survived the intestate and had then died entitled to the estate by purchase; and if the intestate has had more husbands or wives than one, and all shall have died before such intestate, then the estate shall be equally divided among the kindred of the several husbands or wives in equal degree equally.

Sec. 952. TRUST ESTATES. -Whenever a trustee is seized of the naked legal estate in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments in fee simple, and shall die intestate thereof, the said legal estate shall be deemed to have descended to such person or persons as would inherit the beneficial estate if the same were vested in him according to the provisions aforesaid.

Sec. 953. HEIR MUST BE SUCH AT TIME OF DEATH OF ANCESTOR. No right in the inheritance shall accrue to or vest in any person other than the children of the intestate and their descendants, unless such person is in being and capable in law to take as heir at the time of the intestate's death; but any child or descendant of the intestate born after the death of the intestate shall have the same right of inheritance as if born before his death.

Sec. 954. WHEN WHOLE AND HALF BLOOD TAKE EQUALLY.-There shall be no distinction between brothers and sisters of the whole and of the half blood, all being descendants of the same father, where the

estate descended on the part of the father, nor between the brothers and sisters of the whole and the half blood, all being descendants of the same mother, where the estate descended on the part of the mother.

Sec. 955. REPRESENTATION.-If in the descending or collateral line any father or mother shall be dead, leaving a child or children, such child or children shall, by representation, be considered in the same degree as the father or mother would have been if living, and shall have the same share of the estate as the father or mother if living would have been entitled to, and no more; and in such case, when there are more children than one, the share aforesaid shall be equally divided among such children.

Sec. 956. COPARCENARY.-There shall be no estate in coparcenary in the District, and where two or more persons inherit from an intestate by virtue of the provisions aforesaid they shall be tenants in common.

Sec. 957. ANTENUPTIAL CHILDREN. If any man shall have a child or children by any woman whom he shall afterwards marry, such child or children, if acknowledged by the man, shall, in virtue of such marriage and acknowledgment, be legitimated and capable in law of inheriting and transmitting heritable property as if born in wedlock.

Sec. 958. ILLEGITIMATE CHILDREN.-The illegitimate child or children of any female and the issue of such illegitimate child or children shall be capable in law of taking real estate by inheritance from their mother, or from each other, or from the descendants of each other, as the case may be: Provided, That such illegitimate child or children, or the issue of such illegitimate child or children, shall not take by descent any interest in the real estate of the mother when such mother is mentally incapacitated from making a will, and shall remain so mentally incapacitated until her death; and where such illegitimate child or children shall die leaving no descendants or brothers or sisters, or the descendants of such brothers or sisters, then and in that case the mother of such illegitimate child or children, if living, shall be entitled as heir to the real estate of such illegitimate child or children, and if the mother be dead, the heirs of the mother shall take in like manner as if such illegitimate child or children had been born in lawful wedlock.

Sec. 959. ADVANCEMENTS.-Any child or children of an intestate, or their issue, who may have received from the intestate any real estate by way of advancement may elect to come into partition with his other heirs on bringing such advancement, or the value thereof at the time such advancement was received, into hotchpot with the estate descended; but such child or children, or their issue, shall not be entitled to claim a share by descent without bringing such advancement, or the value thereof as aforesaid, into the common stock or hotchpot, if there be another child or children [unprovided] not equally provided for: Provided, That if any child or children or descendant shall have been advanced by the intestate by settlement or portion of personalty, which shall not be equalized under the provisions of section three hundred and seventy-nine of this code, such advance shall be treated as real estate for the purposes of this section.

Sec. 960. ALIEN ANCESTORS.-In making title by descent it shall be no bar to a party claiming as heir that any ancestor, whether living or dead, through whom he derives his descent from the intestate is or has been an alien.

Sec. 961. PARTY COMMITTING MURDER OR MANSLAUGHTER TAKES NO INTEREST IN ESTATE OF DECEASED.-No person who shall be convicted of the felonious homicide of another, either by way of murder or manslaughter, shall take any estate or interest of any kind whatsoever in any kind of property whatsoever from that other by way of inheritance, distribution, devise, or bequest, or shall take any remainder, reversion, or executory interest dependent upon the death of that other; and the estate or interest or property to which the person so convicted would have succeeded or would have taken in any way from or after the death of the person so killed by him shall go as if the person so convicted had died before the person whom he shall be convicted of killing. And every policy of insurance procured, directly or indirectly, by the person so convicted for his own benefit or payable to him upon the life of the person so killed shall be void. This act shall not affect the rights of bona fide purchasers of any such property for value without notice.

Sec. 962. WHEN LANDS ESCHEAT.-Any lands in the District of Columbia of which any person shall hereafter die seized in fee simple intestate, without any heir capable of inheriting, shall escheat to the United States.-Act of June 30, 1902.

[Sec. 962. WHEN LANDS ESCHEAT.-Any lands within the District of Columbia of which any person has died or shall hereafter die seized in fee simple, without any heir of the whole blood who could have inherited if he had been a citizen of the United States, or without leaving any relation of the half blood within two degrees, that is, first cousins as the same are reckoned by the common law, shall escheat to the United States.]

CHAPTER XXII.

DIVORCE.

Sec. 963. PETITION.-All applications for divorce or for a decree annulling a marriage shall be made by petition to the supreme court of the District, and the proceedings thereupon shall be the same as in equity causes, except so far as otherwise herein provided: Provided, however, That all petitions for divorce pending on the thirty-first day of December, nineteen hundred and one, may be proceeded with and disposed of under the provisions of the statutes in force on said date.

Sec. 964. PROOF REQUIRED.-No decree for a divorce, or decree annulling a marriage, shall be rendered on default, without proof; nor shall any admission contained in the answer of the defendant be taken as proof of the facts charged as the ground of the application, but the same shall, in all cases, be proved by other evidence.

Sec. 965. DECREE ANNULLING MARRIAGE. A decree annulling the marriage as illegal and void may be rendered on any of the grounds mentioned in chapter forty-three as invalidating a marriage.

Sec. 966. CAUSES FOR DIVORCE A VINCULO AND FOR DIVORCE A MENSA ET THORO.-A divorce from the bond of marriage may be granted only where one of the parties has committed adultery during the marriage: Provided, That in such case the innocent party only may remarry, but nothing herein contained shall prevent the remarriage of the divorced parties to each other: And provided, That legal separation from bed and board may be granted for drunkenness, cruelty, or desertion: And provided, That marriage contracts may be declared void in the following cases:

First. Where such marriage was contracted while either of the parties thereto had a former wife or husband living, unless the former marriage had been lawfully dissolved.

Second. Where such marriage was contracted during the lunacy of either party (unless there has been voluntary cohabitation after the lunacy) or was procured by fraud or coercion.

Third. Where either party was matrimonially incapacitated at the time of marriage and has continued so.

Fourth. Where either of the parties had not arrived at the age of legal consent to the contract of marriage (unless there has been voluntary cohabitation after coming to legal age), but in such cases only at the suit of the party not capable of consenting.

Sec. 967. FOREGOING SECTION NOT RETROACTIVE. The provisions of this Act shall not invalidate any marriage heretofore solemnized according to law, or affect the validity of any decree or judgment of divorce heretofore pronounced.

Sec. 968. IN SUITS FOR DIVORCE A VINCULO DIVORCE A MENSA ET THORO MAY BE DECREED.-Where a divorce from the bond of marriage