Parham v. Hughes

441 U.S. 347, 99 S. Ct. 1742, 60 L. Ed. 2d 269, 1979 U.S. LEXIS 90

• Court: Supreme Court of the United States
• Decided: April 24, 1979
• Docket: 78-3
• Status: Published

Opinions

Mb. Justice Stewaet

announced the judgment of the Court and delivered an opinion, in which The Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Rehnquist, and Mr. Justice Stevens joined.

Under § 105-1307 of the Georgia Code (1978) (hereinafter Georgia statute),¹ the mother of an illegitimate child can sue for the wrongful death of that child. A father who has legitimated a child can also sue for the.wrongful death of the child if there is no mother. A father who has not legitimated a child, however, is precluded from maintaining a wrongful-death action. The question presented in this case is whether this statutory scheme violates the Equal Protection or Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by denying the father of an illegitimate child who has not legitimated the child the right to sue for the child’s wrongful death.

I

The appellant was the biological father of Lemuel Parham, a minor child who was killed in an automobile collision. The child’s mother, Cassandra Moreen, was killed in the same collision. The appellant and Moreen were never married to each other, and the appellant did not legitimate the child as he could have done under Georgia law.² The appellant did, however, sign the child’s birth certificate and contribute to his support.³ The child took the appellant’s name and was visited by the appellant on a regular basis.

After the child was killed in the automobile collision, the appellant brought an action seeking to recover for the allegedly wrongful death. The complaint named the appellee (the driver of the other automobile involved in the collision) as the defendant, and charged that negligence on the part of the appellee had caused the death of the child. The child's maternal grandmother, acting as administratrix of his estate, also brought a lawsuit against the appellee to recover for the child’s wrongful death.⁴

The appellee filed a motion for summary judgment in the present case, asserting that under the Georgia statute the appellant was precluded from recovering for his illegitimate child’s wrongful death. The trial court held that the Georgia statute violated both the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment and, accordingly, denied a summary judgment in favor of the appellee. On appeal, the Georgia Supreme Court reversed the ruling of the trial court. 241 Ga. 198, 243 S. E. 2d 867. The appellate court found that the statutory classification was rationally related to three legitimate state interests: (1) the interest in avoiding difficult problems of proving paternity in wrongful-death actions; (2) the interest in promoting a legitimate family unit; and (3) the interest in setting a standard of morality by not according to the father of an illegitimate child the statutory right to sue for the child’s death. Accordingly, the court held that the statute did not violate either the Equal Protection or Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. We noted probable jurisdiction of this appeal from the judgment of the Georgia Supreme Court. 439 U. S. 815.

II

State laws are generally entitled to a presumption of validity against attack under the Equal Protection Clause. Lockport v. Citizens for Community Action, 430 U. S. 259, 272. Legislatures have wide discretion in passing laws that have the inevitable effect of treating some people differently from others, and legislative classifications are valid unless they bear no rational relationship to a permissible state objective. New York City Transit Authority v. Beazer, 440 U. S. 568; Vance v. Bradley, 440 U. S. 93; Massachusetts Bd. of Retirement v. Murgia, 427 U. S. 307, 314; Dandridge v. Williams, 397 U. S. 471, 485.

Not all legislation, however, is entitled to the same presumption of validity. The presumption is not present when a State has enacted legislation whose purpose or effect is to create classes based upon racial criteria, since racial classifications, in a constitutional sense, are inherently "suspect.” McLaughlin v. Florida, 379 U. S. 184; Brown v. Board of Education, 347 U. S. 483. And the presumption of statutory validity may also be undermined when a State has enacted legislation creating classes based upon certain other immutable human attributes. See, e. g., Oyama v. California, 332 U. S. 633 (national origin); Graham v. Richardson, 403 U. S. 365 (alienage); Gomez v. Perez, 409 U. S. 535 (illegitimacy) ; Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71 (gender).

In the absence of invidious discrimination, however, a court is not free under the aegis of the Equal Protection Clause to substitute its judgment for the will of the people of a State as expressed in the laws passed by their popularly elected legislatures. “The Constitution presumes that, absent some reason to infer antipathy, even improvident decisions will eventually be rectified by the democratic process and that judicial intervention is generally unwarranted no matter how unwisely we may think a political branch has acted.” Vance v. Bradley, 440 U. S., at 97 (footnote omitted). The threshold question, therefore, is whether the Georgia statute is invidiously discriminatory. If it is not, it is entitled to a presumption of validity and will be upheld “unless the varying treatment of different groups or persons is so unrelated to the achievement of any combination of legitimate purposes that we can only conclude that the legislature’s actions were irrational.” Ibid.

Ill

The appellant relies on decisions of the Court that have invalidated statutory classifications based upon illegitimacy and upon gender to support his claim that the Georgia statute is unconstitutional. Both of these lines of cases have involved laws reflecting invidious discrimination against a particular class. We conclude, however, that neither line of decisions is applicable in the present case.

A

The Court has held on several occasions that state legislative classifications based upon illegitimacy — i. e., that differentiate between illegitimate children and legitimate children — violate the Equal Protection Clause. E. g., Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762; Weber v. Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., 406 U. S. 164.⁵ The basic rationale of these decisions is that it is unjust and ineffective for society to express its condemnation of procreation outside the marital relationship by punishing the illegitimate child who is in no way responsible for his situation and is unable to change it. As Mr. Justice Powell stated for the Court in the Weber case:

“The status of illegitimacy has expressed through the ages society’s condemnation of irresponsible liaisons beyond the bonds of marriage. But visiting this condemnation on the head of an infant is illogical and unjust. Moreover, imposing disabilities on the illegitimate child is contrary to the basic concept of our system that legal burdens should bear some relationship to individual responsibility or wrongdoing. Obviously, no child is responsible for his birth and penalizing the illegitimate child is an ineffectual — as well as an unjust — way of deterring the parent.” Id., at 175.

It is apparent that this rationale is in no way applicable to the Georgia statute now before us. The statute does not impose differing burdens or award differing benefits to legitimate and illegitimate children. It simply denies a natural father the right to sue for his illegitimate child's wrongful death. The appellant, as the natural father, was responsible for conceiving an illegitimate child and had the opportunity to legitimate the child but failed to do so. Legitimation would have removed the stigma of bastardy and allowed the child to inherit from the father in the same manner as if born in lawful wedlock. Ga. Code § 74-103 (1978). Unlike the illegitimate child for whom the status of illegitimacy is involuntary and immutable, the appellant here was responsible for fostering an illegitimate child and for failing to change its status. It is thus neither illogical nor unjust for society to express its “condemnation of irresponsible liaisons beyond the bounds of marriage” by not conferring upon a biological father the statutory right to sue for the wrongful death of his illegitimate child. The justifications for judicial sensitivity to the constitutionality of differing legislative treatment of legitimate and illegitimate children are simply absent when a classification affects only the fathers of deceased illegitimate children.

B

The Court has also held that certain classifications based upon sex are invalid under the Equal Protection Clause, e. g., Reed v. Reed, 404 U. S. 71; Stanton v. Stanton, 421 U. S. 7; Frontiero v. Richardson, 411 U. S. 677; Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190. Underlying these decisions is the principle that a State is not free to make overbroad generalizations based on sex which are entirely unrelated to any differences between men and women or which demean the ability or social status of the affected class. Thus, in Reed v. Reed, supra, the Court was faced with the question of the constitutionality of an Idaho probate code provision that gave men a mandatory preference over women, in the same degree of relationship to the decedent, in the administration of the decedent’s estate. The Court held that “[b]y providing dissimilar treatment for men and women who are thus similarly situated, the challenged section violates the Equal Protection Clause.” 404 U. S., at 77. Similarly, in Frontiero v. Richardson, supra, the Court invalidated the federal Armed Services benefit statutes that were based on the assumption that female spouses of servicemen were financially dependent while similarly situated male spouses of servicewomen were not. 411 U. S., at 690-691. And in the Stanton case, the Court held constitutionally invalid a Utah statute which provided that males had to reach a greater age than females to attain majority status. In reaching this result, the Court rejected the “old notion” that the female is “destined solely for the home and the rearing of the family, and only the male for the marketplace and the world of ideas.” 421 U. S., at 14-15. See also Orr v. Orr, 440 U. S. 268.

In cases where men and women are not similarly situated, however, and a statutory classification is realistically based upon the differences in their situations, this Court has upheld its validity. In Schlesinger v. Ballard, 419 U. S. 498, for example, the Court upheld the constitutionality of a federal statute which provided that male naval officers who were not promoted within a certain length of time were subject to mandatory discharge while female naval officers who were not promoted within the same length of time could continue as officers. Because of restrictions on women officers’ seagoing service, their opportunities to compile records entitling them to promotion were more restricted than were those of their male counterparts. Thus, unlike the Reed and Frontiero cases where the gender-based classifications were based solely on administrative convenience and outworn cliches, the different treatment in the Schlesinger case reflected “not archaic and overbroad generalizations, but, instead, the demonstrable fact that male and female line officers in the Navy are not similarly situated with respect to opportunities for professional service.” 419 U. S., at 508 (emphasis in original).

With these principles in mind, it is clear that the Georgia statute does not invidiously discriminate against the appellant simply because he is of the male sex. The fact is that mothers and fathers of illegitimate children are not similarly situated. Under Georgia law, only a father can by voluntary unilateral action make an illegitimate child legitimate.⁶ Unlike the mother of an illegitimate child whose identity will rarely be in doubt, the identity of the father will frequently be unknown. Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259.⁷ By coming forward with a motion under § 74-103 of the Georgia Code, however, a father can both establish his identity and make his illegitimate child legitimate.⁸

Thus, the conferral of the right of a natural father to sue for the wrongful death of his child only if he has previously acted to identify himself, undertake his paternal responsibilities, and make his child legitimate, does not reflect any overbroad generalizations about men as a class, but rather the reality that in Georgia only a father can by unilateral action legitimate an illegitimate child. Since fathers who do legitimate their children can sue for wrongful death in precisely the same circumstances as married fathers whose children were legitimate ab initio, the statutory classification does not discriminate against fathers as a class but instead distinguishes between fathers who have legitimated their children and those who have not.⁹ Such a classification is quite unlike those condemned in the Reed, Frontiero, and Stanton cases which were premised upon overbroad generalizations and excluded all members of one sex even though they were similarly situated with members of the other sex.

IV

Having concluded that the Georgia statute does not invidiously discriminate against any class,.we still must determine whether the statutory classification is rationally related to a permissible state objective.

This Court has frequently recognized that a State has a legitimate interest in the maintenance of an accurate and efficient system for the disposition of property at death. E. g., Lalli v. Lalli, supra; Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762; Labine v. Vincent, 401 U. S. 532. Of particular concern to the State is the existence of some mechanism for dealing with “the often difficult problem of proving the paternity of illegitimate children and the related danger of spurious claims against intestate estates.” Lalli v. Lalli, supra, at 265. See also Gomez v. Perez, 409 U. S., at 538.

This same state interest in avoiding fraudulent claims of paternity in order to maintain a fair and orderly system of decedent’s property disposition is also present in the context of actions for wrongful death. If paternity has not been established before the commencement of a wrongful-death action, a defendant may be faced with the possibility of multiple lawsuits by individuals all claiming to be the father of the deceased child. Such uncertainty would make it difficult if not impossible for a defendant to settle a wrongful-death action in many cases, since there would always exist the risk of a subsequent suit by another person claiming to be the father.¹⁰ The State of Georgia has chosen to deal with this problem by allowing only fathers who have established their paternity by legitimating their children to sue for wrongful death, and we cannot say that this solution is an irrational one. Cf. Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259.¹¹

The appellant argues, however, that whatever may be the problem with establishing paternity generally, there is no question in this case that he is the father. This argument misconceives the basic principle of the Equal Protection Clause. The function of that provision of the Constitution is to measure the validity of classifications created by state laws.¹² Since we have concluded that the classification created by the Georgia statute is a rational means for dealing with the problem of proving paternity, it is constitutionally irrelevant that the appellant may be able to prove paternity in another manner.

y

The appellant also alleges that the Georgia statute violates the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Nowhere in the appellant’s brief or oral argument, however, is there any explanation of how the Due Process Clause is implicated in this case. The only decision of this Court cited by the appellant that is even remotely related to his due process claim is Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U. S. 645. In the Stanley case, the Court held that a father of illegitimate children who had raised these children was entitled to a hearing on his fitness as a parent before they could be taken from him by the State of Illinois. The interests which the Court found controlling in Stanley were the integrity of the family against state interference and the freedom of a father to raise his own children. The present case is quite a different one, involving as it does only an asserted right to sue for money damages.

Eor these reasons, the judgment of the Supreme Court of Georgia is affirmed.

It is so ordered.

1 Section 105-1307 provides:

“A mother, or, if no mother, a father, may recover for the homicide of a child, minor or sui juris, unless said child shall leave a wife, husband or child. The mother or father shall be entitled to recover the full value of the life of such child. In suits by the mother the illegitimacy of the child shall be no bar to a recovery.” (Emphasis added.)

2 Under Ga. Code § 74A103 (1978), a natural father can have his child legitimated by court order. Section 74M03 provides:

“A father of an illegitimate child may render the same legitimate by petitioning the superior court of the county of his residence, setting forth the name, age, and sex of such child, and also the name of the mother; and if he desires the name changed, stating the new name, and praying the legitimation of such child. Of this application the mother, if alive, shall have notice. Upon such application, presented and fled, the court may pass an order declaring said child to be legitimate, and capable of inheriting from the father in the same manner as if born in lawful wedlock, and the name by which he or she shall be known.”

3 Under Ga. Code § 74-202 (1978), a father is required to support an illegitimate child until the child reaches 18, marries, or becomes self-supporting, whichever occurs first.

4 Georgia Code § 105-1309 (1978) provides:

“In cases where there is no person entitled to sue under the foregoing provisions of this Chapter [the wrongful-death Chapter], the administrator or executor of the decedent may sue for and recover and hold the amount recovered for the benefit of the next of kin. In any such case the amount of the recovery shall be the full value of the life of the decedent.”

5 In cases where statutory classifications affecting illegitimates are so precisely structured as to further a sufficiently adequate state interest, however, the Court has upheld the validity of the statutes. Lalli v. Lalli, 439 U. S. 259; Mathews v. Lucas, 427 U. S. 495; Labine v. Vincent, 401 U. S. 532.

6 The constitutionality of the legitimation provision of the Georgia statute has not been challenged and is not at issue in this ease.

7 As Mr. Justice Powell stated for the plurality in the Lalli case: “That the child is the child of a particular woman is rarely difficult to prove. Proof of paternity, by contrast, frequently is difficult when the father is not part of a formal family unit. The putative father often goes his way unconscious of the birth of a child. Even if conscious, he is very often totally unconcerned because of the absence of any ties to the mother. Indeed the mother may not know who is responsible for her pregnancy.” 439 U. S., at 268-269. (Citations omitted.)

In Glona v. American Guarantee & Liability Ins. Co., 391 U. S. 73, the Court held that a Louisiana statute that did not allow a natural mother of an illegitimate child to sue for its wrongful death violated the Equal Protection Clause. That cause was quite different from this one. The invidious discrimination perceived in that ease was between married and unmarried mothers. There thus existed no real problem of identity or of fraudulent claims. See Part IV, infra. Moreover, the statute in Olona excluded every mother of an illegitimate child from bringing a wrongful-death action while the Georgia statute at issue here excludes only those fathers who have not legitimated their children. Thus, the Georgia statute has in effect adopted “a middle ground between the extremes of complete exclusion and case-by-case determination of paternity.” Trimble v. Gordon, 430 U. S. 762, 771. Cf. Lalli v. Lalli, supra. We need not decide whether a statute which completely precluded fathers, as opposed to mothers, of illegitimate children from maintaining a wrongful-death action would violate the Equal Protection Clause.

8 See n. 2, supra.

9 The ability of a father to make his child legitimate under Georgia law distinguishes this case from Caban v. Mohammed, post, p. 380, decided today. The Georgia legitimation provision enables the father to change the child’s status, and thereby his own for purposes of the wrongful-death statute, and at the same time is a rational method for the State to deal with the problem of proving paternity. Lalli v. Lalli, supra; see Part IV, infra. In the Caban case, by contrast, the father could change neither his children’s status nor his own for purposes of the New York adoption statute.

10 Indeed, a similar uncertainty is evident in the present case. The appellee has been sued by both the administratrix of the estate and the appellant for the wrongful death of the child.

11 We thus need not decide whether the classification created by the Georgia statute is rationally related to the State’s interests in promoting the traditional family unit or in setting a standard of morality.

12 It cannot seriously be argued that a statutory entitlement to sue for the wrongful death of another is itself a “fundamental” or constitutional right.