Chapter III: Heirs.

In the absence of a spouse entitled to inherit, the parents are called upon to succeed as follows: 1° Children and their descendants; 2° Father and mother; brothers and sisters and the descendants of the latter; 3° Ascendants other than father and mother; 4° Collaterals other than brothers and sisters and the descendants of the latter. Each of these four categories constitutes an order of heirs that excludes the following.

Children or their descendants succeed to their father and mother or other ascendants, without distinction as to sex or primogeniture, even if they come from different unions.

Where the deceased leaves no posterity, brothers, sisters or descendants of the latter, his father and mother succeed to him, each for half.

Where the father and mother predeceased the deceased and the deceased leaves no descendants, the brothers and sisters of the deceased or their descendants succeed to the deceased, to the exclusion of other parents, ascendants or collateral relatives.

Where the father and mother survive and the deceased has no descendants but brothers and sisters or their descendants, one quarter of the estate devolves to each of the father and mother and the remaining half to the brothers and sisters or their descendants. Where only one of the father and mother survives, one quarter of the estate devolves to that father and three quarters to the brothers and sisters…

Where only the father or mother survives and the deceased has neither posterity nor brothers or sisters nor descendants of the latter, but leaves one or more ascendants of a branch other than that of his or her surviving father or mother, the succession devolves half to the father or mother and half to the ascendants of the other branch.

Where the father and mother or one of them survives the deceased and the latter has no posterity, they may in all cases exercise a right of reversion, up to the proportional shares fixed in the first paragraph of Article 738, on the property that the deceased had received from them by gift. The value of the portion of the property subject to the right of return is deducted in…