Leinbach's Estate

Citations

• 241 Pa. 32
• 88 A. 67
• 1913 Pa. LEXIS 731

Syllabus

<p>Constitutional law — Amending act — Act not purporting to he amended — Purpose of act — Incidental operations of statutes— Special legislation — Classification—Sufficiency of title.</p> <p>1. The Act of May 9, 1889, P- L. 168, entitled “An act'relating to the adoption of any person as an heir,” is constitutional, and does not.offend against either Section 6, Section 7, or Section 3 of Article III, of the Constitution.</p> <p>2. While the Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 168, incidentally operates to change the provisions for distributive shares of a decedent’s estate, under the Act of April 8, 1833, P. L. 315, its effect is not to amend or extend the Act of May 4, 1855, P. L. 430, by charging the course of descent therein directed, and giving to the class of children any different shares or portions than they were entitled to under the conditions there recited, but simply to qualify as legal children certain parties who theretofore were denied adoption, to wit, adults.</p> <p>3. There is a fundamental distinction warranting separate legislative classification of children as distinguished from adults, and an act providing for the adoption of the latter is not unconstitutional as being special legislation.</p> <p>4. The title of the Act of May 9, 1889, P. L. 168, directs attention to the fact that the subject is the adoption of “any person as heir,” which was the true and only object of the legislation, and it is, therefore, within the constitutional requirement.</p>