Family Code > CHAPTER NINE FILIATION 4

Section 4. Contestation of Filiation and Disowning

Sub-Section 1. Contestation of Filiation

Article 163. – Principle

The maternal filiation of the child may be contested at any time by any interested person.

Article 164. – Admissibility of Action.

1) The action to contest filiation may not the instituted except with the permission of the court.

2) Such permission shall not be granted unless there are presumptions of indications resulting from concrete facts enabling the court to grant permission.

Article 165. – Inadmissibility of Action .

Where the filiation of the child results from the certificate of birth and is corroborated by a possession of status, permission to institute an action to contest filiatoin may not be granted.

Article 166- person Against whom Action Instituted

1) The action to contest filiation shall be instituted against the person whose filiation is contested or against his heirs.

2) The mother and, where necessary, the father of the child shall be joined as parties in the proceedings.

Sub-Section 2. Disowning

Article-167-Principle.

The paternal filiatioon of a child may be contested only by means of an action to disown.

Article-168- No Sexual Intercourse with the Mother

(1) Principle.

The person to whom the law attributes the paternity of a child may disown such child by proving decisively that he could not have had sexual intercourse with the mother during the period between the 300th and 180th day before the birth of the child.

Article 169-(2) Legal Presumption

1) The spouse shall be deemed to have had no sexual intercourse with one another during the time when they actually lived separately following a petition for divorce made by one of them or in consequence of an agreement consequence between them.

2) Proof to the contrary by any means is admissible.

Article 170. -When Paternity is impossible (1) Principle.

The Person to whom the law attributes the paternity of a child may disown such child by proving decisively that it is absolutely impossible that he could be the father of the child.

Article 171. – (2) Admissibility of Action.

(1) The action to disown based on the preceding Article may not be instituted except with the permission of the court

(2) Such permission shall be granted when there are presumptions or serious indications resulting from sufficient and reliable facts enabling the court to accept the action

Article 172. – (3) Presumptions and serious Indications.

(1) The presumptions and serious indications may consist of physical characteristics of the child recognized by science to be incompatible with those of the father.

(2) They may also result from the fact that the women has concealed the birth of the child or her pregnancy to the man under circumstances which are apt to create doubts as regards his paternity.

Article 173. – (4) Adultery or Admission of the Mother .

The adultery of the mother or her admission that the child has another father are not sufficient, by themselves, to constitute serious circumstantial evidence.

Article 174. – plaintiff in the Suit.

(1) Only the person to whom the paternity of the child is attributed by legal presumption may institute an action to disown.

(2) No action to this effect may be made by the mother or by a man who claims the paternity of the child or by the public prosecutor or by the child himself.

Article 175. – Judicially Interdicted Person.

(1) An action to disown may, with permission of the court, be instituted by the judicially interdicted person himself.

(2) The action may, with the same permission, be instituted in the name of the interdicted person by his guardian.

Article 176. –Time (1) Principle.

(1) An action to disown shall be instituted by the man to whom the paternity of the child is attributed by law within 180 days following the day he knew or he should have known the birth of the child.

(2) Where the maternal filiation is established by an action to claim a status, the action to disown shall be instituted within 180 days from the judgment deciding on the action to claim a status having become final.

Article 177. – (2) Exception.

(1) Where the person to whom the paternity of the child is attributed by law dies or becomes incapacitated within the time fixed by law for instituting the action to disown, one of his descendants, in his stead, may institute an action to disown.

(2) In default of descendants, the right to disown may be exercised by his father, or mother, or in their default, by one of his ascendants.

(3) In default of ascendants, it may be exercised one of his brothers or sisters, to the exclusion of any other heir or representative

Article 178- Inadmissibility of Action

Disowning shall not be allowed where it is proved that the child has been conceived by means of artificial insemination with the written consent of the husband.

Article 179-Defendant in the Suit.

1) The action to disown shall be instituted against the child where he is deal, against his heirs.

2) The mother of the child shall be jointed in the suit.

3) Where the child is minor. He shall be represented by a tutor ad hoc appointed by the count for this purpose

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