R and M married each other in 1940 and separated in 1946 when M went to live with her paramour, F.

M lived with F for seven years in several different states, during which time they had a daughter together, C.

M left F and returned to live with her husband. M and her daughter C lived with R in California until he passed away in 1964. During the time they lived together, R supported C financially and in every respect treated her as if she were his natural born child.

After R’s death, M applied for child’s social security benefits for C and mother’s social security benefits for herself based on R’s earnings record.

The question was whether or not C qualified as R’s child for social security purposes.

Under the applicable regulations, a child qualified as a deceased worker’s child if she is the child or adopted child of the worker, or the step child of the deceased worker for not less than one year prior to his death.

To determine whether the claimant is the deceased worker’s child, it is necessary to consult the law of the state in which the worker was domiciled at the time of his or her death, in this case California.

The question was whether C would qualify to inherit personal property from R under California’s laws of intestate succession. The answer, unfortunately for C, was no.

Under California law at the time, a child born during a marriage was presented to be the legitimate offspring of the marriage. However, this presumption could be rebutted by facts showing the husband’s lack of access to the wife during the possible period of conception.

California did not follow Lord Mansfield’s Rule, which is a centuries-old evidentiary rule preventing husbands and wives from giving testimony about whether they had access to each other at the time of conception.

M had testified that F was C’s natural father, and F was listed as the father on C’s birth certificate.

M’s backup argument was that C qualified as R’s stepchild. Although the social security regulations did not specifically define the term stepchild, the agency considered the term in its common, everyday usage. In this sense, a stepchild is a child that is born to a different partner, that the parent brings with him or her into the new marriage. But C was born ten years after R and M’s marriage.

Unfortunately for C and M, their application for mother’s and child’s social security benefits was denied. However, M could still qualify for widow’s benefits once she attained age 60, if all other requirements were met.

See Social Security Ruling (SSR) 66-11.

This material should not be construed as legal advice for any particular fact situation, but is intended for general informational purposes only. For advice specific to any individual situation, an experienced attorney should be contacted.