ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996                 TAG: 9606090034
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: RICHARD FOSTER STAFF WRITER 

CORPSE TO STAY BURIED COURT: CAN'T EXHUME TO PROVE PATERNITY

The Virginia Supreme Court on Friday ruled against a Roanoke woman who wanted to exhume the body of a Bedford County man for DNA tests to prove her claim that he was her father.

In handing down the opinion, the Supreme Court reversed the ruling of Bedford County Circuit Judge William Sweeney. Earlier this year, Sweeney granted Christine Majied's request to exhume the body of Jim Brown, who died in 1993.

Majied could not be reached for comment, but her attorney, Bill Cleaveland, said, "She stands behind her position that she's the rightful heir of Brown's estate."

Cleaveland said Majied could continue to argue her paternity case with evidence other than the DNA tests, or she may appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, challenging the constitutionality of Virginia's exhumation laws.

"I'm concerned that the decision creates an unconstitutional position for illegitimate children," Cleaveland said. "They are placed in a class by themselves, and they are precluded from seeking paternity."

The case is believed to be the first of its kind in Virginia and is one of only a handful in the United States to address the issue of exhumation to prove paternity. State courts in North Carolina and Pennsylvania have upheld the rights of illegitimate children to determine their paternity through exhumation, although the New York Supreme Court has thrown out a similar request, calling it "unreasonable."

In granting the request from Brown's estate to block the exhumation, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that proof of paternity is not one of the causes for exhumation allowed under state law.

State statute provides for exhumation only in those cases in which there is a violent death or mysterious circumstances surrounding the death, and in which a chief medical examiner authorizes an investigation.

Majied's paternity claim did not meet those requirements, the court said in its written opinion.

Majied and her mother, Mary Trent Langhorne, claim that Majied is the illegitimate child of Langhorne and Brown. Majied said Brown acknowledged her as his daughter before he died, without a will, in 1993.

In her claim, Majied seeks a portion of Brown's estate, most of which consists of Bedford County farmland valued at more than $90,000.

Representatives of Brown's estate could not be reached for comment Friday.

LENGTH: Short :   50 lines