Chapter G. Nonmarital Children

• Jurisdiction: Washington

G. NONMARITAL CHILDREN

In a significant departure from prior law,⁷³ the present Washington statute dealing with the rights of nonmarital (formerly, and often still, referred to as "illegitimate")⁷⁴ children specifically disregards the marital status of the parents in determining those rights.⁷⁵ Therefore, children have the same right of inheritance from or through their parents regardless whether their parents were ever married, and parents and their kin have the same rights of inheritance from nonmarital children as any other natural kin would have.⁷⁶

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⁷³ See note 76.

⁷⁴ See Pitzer v. Union Bank of Cal, 141 Wn.2d 539, 542 n.1, 9 P.3d 805 (2000); Guard v. Jackson, 132...