As Clarke Canfield of AP reported Maine's Supreme Court upheld the adoption of a woman who is seeking to make a claim to an inheritance of the father of her former lesbian partner. They overturned a 2008 decision from a lower court which overturned the decision.
43 year old Olive Watson adopted 42 year old partner Patricia Spado in 1991 in Maine where they merely spent some weeks at during the summers but were not residents of. This was done since Olive Watson's father Thomas Watson Jr. who built IBM into a multi billion dollar computer company thereby earning a fortune himself in the process. His dad was the initial president of IBM and he took over and ran the company 1952-1971 but prior to his leadership they had not shipped a single computer. As a result of his leadership and he was named by Time Magazine as one of the 100 most influential men of the 20th century.
His daughter adopting her partner as her daughter established that she was the grandchild of her father. They never told the father about the adoption or disclosed their relationship to the court. The relationship ended a year after the adoption but for some reason she did not seek to annul it then and still did not let her father know about it.
The following year her father died in 1993 unaware of the adoption or having an additional grandchild. He had prepared a trust that provided upon the death of himself and his spouse grandchildren would be entitled to cash payments at age 35. The spouse died in 2004. Her fathers other beneficiaries or heirs challenged the adoption in 2005 in Maine since they did not comply with residency requirements which were part of the law at the time of the challenge and arguing a fraud on the court in not disclosing the relationship they had and the relationship being formed not to be mother daughter but to provide an inheritance.
The Maine Probate Court Judge who granted the adoption in 1991 annulled it in 2008 on the residency issue. It was then appealed and the Maine Supreme Court ruled that it did comply with the residency requirement at the time of the adoption. The court further held that there was insufficient evidence of fraud and that historically adult adoptions had been allowed in order to convey inheritance rights, provide perpetual care to a disabled adult adoptee or formalize an existing parent-child relationship and not merely for the last reason.
The Court was also addressing arguments of the Trustees who were seeking to dispute the adoption since it was a sham inventing inheritance rights instead of seeking a traditional parent child relationship and the father did not know about it. The trust litigation issue will now continue as the father died in Connecticut and the attorneys for the trustees and lawyers for the adopted child will argue regarding whether she should be entitled to her share. While she is not specifically named in the trust it does say all grandchildren will receive a cash payout at 35 and as an adopted child of her ex partner who was her daughter she legally is his grandchild and is thus arguably entitled to the cash payout.
The case will now move to CT probate court to determine if Spado is entitled to any of the vast trust and estate fortune. Michael Koskoff the lead trust litigation attorney in the Connecticut case said "now the fireworks will start".
Florida is one of just two states in the country which does not allow gay people to adopt. This is a disputed issue now with groups seeking to contest this and allow everyone to adopt and raise a family. Florida adoption law however like that of Maine allows for adults to adopt other adults and there is no age or other restrictions. The Florida Adoption Statute can be read by clicking here. When adoption is intended to be that of a parent and child relationship it seems bizarre that anybody could adopt anybody even a 40 or 50 year old competent and healthy individual being adopted by another of the same age. Given this Maine case illustrating the pitfalls of adoption in these circumstances and the additional trust litigation or estate litigation that can occur as a result those who believe in gay adoption may wish to change the statute in Florida to put a limit on age at which a person may be adopted to 18 or show that the relationship is a legitimate parent child relationship and why it is being done if a person is being adopted as a child who is above that age. Then the debate would truly be of everyone being able to adopt children and not side stepping alternate life style marriages not being allowed and seeking to artificially create inheritance rights and in the Maine case without even the knowledge of the grantor. That would merely add to increased Florida Probate Litigation disputes or Florida Trust Litigation challenges. It therefore appears that until the age loophole and allowing anyone to adopt anyone at any age and for any reason that the restriction on adoption that Florida has is a good procedural safeguard to avoid disputed situations like the Maine Litigation which is now shifting to an Inheritance Litigation case in Connecticut arguing over the trust.
The Florida Adoption statute for Florida Inheritance purposes can be read by clicking here.
One final note of interest is that if it had been a revocable trust and the grantor had mental capacity at the time had Olive Watson mentioned the adoption to her father at the time the relationship broke up he could have removed her "child" from his estate plan even if the adoption argument were not successful and it would have avoided litigation before the Maine Probate Judge to challenge the adoption last year or again last week.
