Art. 806. A legal portion is that part of the property which the testator can not dispose of because the law has reserved it for specified heirs, called, on that account, heirs by force of law.

Art. 807. Heirs by force of law are:

1. Legitimate children and descendants, with regard to their legitimate parents and ascendants.

2. In the absence of the foregoing, the legitimate parents and ascendants, with regard to their legitimate children and descendants.

3. The widower or widow, the natural children legally acknowledged, and the father or the mother of the latter, in the manner and extent established in articles 834, 835, 836, 837, 840, 841, 842, and 846.

Art. 808. The legal portion of legitimate children and descendants is composed of two-thirds of the hereditary estate of the father and of the mother.

Nevertheless, the latter may dispose of one of the two-thirds forming the legal portion in order to apply it as a betterment to their legitimate children and descendants.

The remaining third shall be at their free disposal.

Art. 809. The legal portion of the parents or ascendants is constituted by one-half of the hereditary estate of the children and descendants. The latter may unrestrictedly dispose of the other half, with the exception of what is established in article 836.

Art. 810. The legal portion reserved to the parents shall be divided between both equally; if one of the parents should have died, the surviving one shall receive the whole.

If the testator leaves neither a father nor a mother, but ascendants in the same degree on the paternal or maternal side, the estate shall be divided equally between both lines. If the ascendants should be of a different degree, it shall wholly belong to the nearest ones of either line.