Legitimation by marriage

474.070. Legitimation by marriage. — If a man, having by a woman a child or children, afterward intermarries with her and recognizes the child or children to be his, they are thereby legitimated.

(RSMo 1939 § 315, A.L. 1955 p. 385 § 242)

Prior revisions: 1929 § 315; 1919 § 312; 1909 § 341

(1967) This statute applies not only to a child born out of wedlock, but also to a child born in wedlock, but sired by a man who was not the mother's husband. The three essential elements of legitimation under this section are actual paternity, intermarriage and recognition. Simpson v. Blackburn (A.), 414 S.W.2d 795.