Lalli v. Lalli

Robert Lalli (plaintiff), the illegitimate son of Mario Lalli, was denied inheritance rights in his father's intestate estate because New York probate law only recognized an illegitimate child's inheritance rights if a court had issued an order establishing paternity during the father's lifetime, and no such order existed when Mario died. Lalli sought Supreme Court review after the New York Court of Appeals upheld the statute against his equal-protection challenge, which relied on the Court's earlier decision in Trimble v. Gordon striking down a similar Illinois inheritance restriction.