The child may be exhibited to the jury to show resemblance to the putative father; Gaunt v. State, 50 N. J. L. 490, 14 Atl. 600; Finnegan v. Dugan, 14 Allen (Mass.) 197; Warlick v. White, 76 N. C. 175; 15 Yale L. J. 96; contra, Clark v. Bradstreet, 80 Me. 454, 15 Atl. 56, 6 Am. St. Rep. 221. See 14 Harv. L. Rev. 545.
A child is a bastard if born beyond a com petent time after the coverture has deter mined; Co. Litt. 123 b; Hargrave & B. note; 2 Kent 210. See GESTATION.
The principal right which a bastard child has is that of maintenance from his parents; 1 Bla. Com. 458 ; La. Civ. Code § 254; (though not from his father at common law; Schoul. Dom. Rel. *384); which may be se cured by the public officers who would be charged with the support of the child, by a peculiar process, or in some cases by the mother ; 2 Kent 215. A bastard has no in heritable blood at common law ; but he may take by devise if described by the name he has gained by reputation ; 1 Ves. & B. 423; Stover v. Boswell's Heir, 3 Dana (Ky.) 233; Cooley v. Dewey, 4 Pick. (Mass.) 93, 16 Am. Dec. 326 ; Barwick v. Miller, 4 Des. Eq. (S. C.) 434. In many of the states, by statute, bastards can inherit from and transmit to their mothers real and personal estate under some modifications; 2 Kent 213; Schaal.
Dom. Rel. *381; Pettus v. Dawson, 82 Tex. 18, 17 S. W. 714.; see Stoltz v. Doering, 112 Ill. 234 ; Cox v. Rash, 82 Ind. 519; and in Utah it can inherit from its father ; Cope v. Cope, 137 U. S. 682, 11 Sup. Ct. 222, 34 L. Ed. 832. Whether a person claiming an in heritance in real estate is the lawful child of the last owner is to be determined by the lex rei sitce; Ross v. Ross, 129 Ma s. 243, 37 Am. Rep. 321.
Nearly all of the states have statutory provisions relative to bastardy proceedings and as to the liability of the father crimi nally as well as to the care of the child.
In bastardy proceedings, evidence of im proper relations of the prosecutrix with oth er men than the defendant, but not during the period of gestation, is incompetent; Ol son v. Peterson, 33 Neb. 358, 50 N. W. 155.
Bastardy complaints are civil actions; 85 Me. 285 ; they abate on the death of the re spondent before trial and during the pend ency of the proceedings; McKenzie v. Lom bard, 85 Me. 224, 27 Atl. 110. See Ham.