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In Re Estate of James A. Hawkins

A State of Georgia Paternity Acknowledgment form completed and signed by the decedent did not render the named child his heir at law.

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After James Hawkins died unmarried and intestate in 2012, his girlfriend, Yuvette Ridley, filed a petition for letters of administration naming her as the estate’s administrator and listing her son Makaleb, whom Hawkins had never adopted, as Hawkins’s only heir at law. The probate court granted the petition and named Ridley as the estate’s administrator and Makaleb as Hawkins’s sole heir. Hawkins’s sister, Patricia Hutchins, then moved to set aside this judgment. Following a hearing, the probate court held that Hawkins was not the child’s biological father and that the child was not Hawkins’s heir at law. The court also removed Ridley as the estate’s administrator and appointed Hutchins in her stead. On appeal from this judgment, Ridley argues that when Hawkins executed a paternity acknowledgment and obtained the listing of his name as the father on the child’s birth certificate, he complied with the provisions of OCGA § 53-2-3 and made Makaleb his heir at law. We disagree and therefore affirm.

“Where a probate court sits as a finder of fact, we accept its findings if they are supported by any evidence. The probate court’s application of the law is subject to de novo appellate review, however.” In re Estate of Price, 324 Ga. App. 681 751 SE2d 487 2013 citations omitted.

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