French law gave a child born of adultery half a share of his mother's estate until Europe's human rights court ruled against it in 2000

Claude Mazurek was born in Avignon in 1942. His mother was married to another man when he was conceived, which made him an "adulterine" child under the French Civil Code. His half-brother Alain, born out of wedlock in 1936, had been legitimated when their mother married in 1937. She was infected with HIV through a blood transfusion and died on 1 August 1990. Her heirs later received 500,000 francs from the national transfusion compensation fund. Article 760 of the Civil Code gave an adulterine child competing with a child of the marriage half the share he would have had if legitimate. The other half went to the legitimate child. The Nîmes tribunal applied the rule on 21 January 1993. The Nîmes Court of Appeal upheld it on 24 March 1994 and ordered Mazurek to return money he had moved from his mother's account while she was in a coma. The Court of Cassation dismissed his appeal on 25 June 1996. On 1 February 2000 the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously that the half share was discrimination over property and awarded 376,034.61 francs for his loss. A French law of 3 December 2001 gave children born of adultery equal rights, but not in estates already divided. Henry Fabris, born 1943, had been offered about €45,477 after his mother died in 1994. The Grand Chamber found a violation on 7 February 2013, and France settled with him for €165,097.77 in June 2013.