Tierce v. Ellis

In November of 1942, William Copeland Tierce and Irene Elizabeth Batchelder were married. From February of 1944 to December of 1945, William Tierce was posted overseas for military service. When he returned to the United States in 1945, he discovered that his wife was six months pregnant. He filed for divorce on 2 February 1946 on grounds of adultery, and the divorce was finalized on 4 February 1946. The unborn child, Dennis Ray Tierce, was not made a party to the divorce proceedings and the question of his paternity was not adjudicated. When Dennis Ray was born on 4 April 1946, his father was listed on the birth certificate as William Tierce.

William Tierce married again and had five children with his second wife. He died in December 1972, and his father, John C. Tierce, died in December 1989. In the list of heirs filed by John C. Tierce's executors, Dennis Ray Tierce was listed as William's son and an heir to John Tierce's estate. Sheila Ellis, one of William Tierce's daughters, then filed a declaratory action asking the court to find Dennis Ray Tierce not the son of William Tierce and therefore not a legitimate heir. The trial court ruled that Dennis Ray was not William's biological son and therefore not an heir to the estate. Dennis Ray appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Alabama, which reversed the lower court's decision.