Short answer. Equally if both of you survive, and entirely to the survivor if only one does. Article 986 states both halves of that rule in a single sentence, and it makes no distinction between the father and the mother or between the parent who raised the child and the one who did not.
What the law says
The father and mother, if living, shall inherit in equal shares. Should one only of them survive, he or she shall succeed to the entire estate of the child.
Civil Code, Article 986 — Father and Mother Share Equally. Read the full provision →
The share does not follow the parenting
This is the part families find hardest. The rule is mechanical: the father and mother, if living, shall inherit in equal shares, and nothing in it turns on who supported the child, who lived with him, or whether the parents separated decades ago. A father who left when the child was small takes the same half as the mother who raised him alone. Intestate succession distributes by status rather than by conduct, and the only way to change that result is a will made by the child during his lifetime — not an argument made by the family after his death.
The surviving parent takes the whole, not a half
The second sentence is worth stating plainly because it is often misread. Where only one parent survives, that parent shall succeed to the entire estate of the child. The deceased parent's half does not pass to his own relatives, and it does not go to the grandparents on that side. Ascendants beyond the parents inherit only in default of both father and mother. A surviving mother therefore takes everything in this class, and the paternal grandparents receive nothing even though their son predeceased the grandchild.
Who else is in the picture
The article states the division within the parents' class; it does not say the parents take the whole estate. Any child of the deceased comes ahead of you and excludes you. A surviving spouse concurs and takes one-half, leaving the other half to be split between the two of you. Illegitimate children of the deceased also concur and take one-half between them, whatever their number. The equal-shares rule then operates on whatever portion belongs to the parents' class, not on the gross estate.
What settles it on paper
The documents are simple and worth gathering at once: the child's birth certificate, which establishes both parents; his death certificate; his marriage certificate if any; and the birth records of any child claimed to be his. Where a parent is said to have predeceased, that parent's death certificate is what proves the survivor takes the whole. If the family understanding is that one parent should not share — because he was absent, or never supported the child — that is a conversation to have with a lawyer about what, if anything, the record actually supports.
Related provisions
- Civil Code, Article 986 — Father and Mother Share Equally
- Civil Code, Article 985 — Parents and Ascendants Inherit Next
- Civil Code, Article 997 — Spouse With Parents or Ascendants