Revised Laws of Saint Lucia (2021)

CHAPTER FIRST
THE FILIATION OF CHILDREN WHO ARE LEGITIMATE OR CONCEIVED DURING MARRIAGE

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    186.   A child conceived during marriage is legitimate and is held to be the child of the husband.

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    A child born on or after the one hundred and eightieth day after the marriage was solemnized, or within 300 days after its dissolution, is held to have been conceived during marriage.

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    187.   The husband cannot disown such a child even for adultery, unless its birth has been concealed from him; in which case he is allowed to set up all the facts tending to establish that he is not the father.

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    188.   Neither can the husband disown the child on the ground of his impotency either natural or caused by accident before the marriage. He may nevertheless disown it if, owing to impotency that did not exist at the time of the marriage, to his distance from his wife, or any other cause, the fact of his being the father is a physical impossibility.

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    189.   A child born before the 180th day after the marriage was solemnized, may be disowned by the husband.

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    190.   Nevertheless a child born before the 180th day of the marriage, cannot be disowned by the husband in the following cases:—

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      1.     If he knew of the pregnancy before the marriage;

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      2.     If he take any part at the registration of the birth;

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      3.     If the child be not declared viable.

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    191.   In all the cases where the husband may disown the child, he must do so:

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      1.     Within 2 months, if he is in the place at the time of the birth;

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      2.     Within 2 months after his return, if absent at the time of the birth;

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      3.     Within 2 months of the discovery of the fraud, if the birth have been concealed from him.

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    192.   If the husband die before disowning the child, but still being within the delay allowed for so doing, the heirs have 2 months to contest the legitimacy of the child from the time he has taken possession of the property of the husband, or from the time that the heirs have been disturbed by him in their possession.

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    193.   Such repudiation of a child, on the part of the husband or of his heirs, must be made by an action at law, directed against the tutor, or tutor ad hoc, appointed to the child, if he is a minor; and the mother, if living, must be made a party to the action.

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    194.   The child which might have been disowned is held to be legitimate, if it has not been disowned as prescribed in this Chapter.

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    195.   A child born after the three hundredth day from the dissolution of the marriage is held not to be the issue thereof and is illegitimate.