In re Intermediate Accounting of Ward
In re Intermediate Accounting of Ward
Opinion of the Court
Order affirmed upon the prevailing opinion in the Appellate Division, with costs to all parties appearing separately and filing separate briefs, payable out of the trust.
Concur: Chief Judge Desmond and Judges Dye, Fuld, Froessel, Burke and FosteS, Judge Van Voorhis dissents in the following opinion.
Dissenting Opinion
Section 115 of the Domestic Relations Law,. respecting the effect of adoption of children, contains a paragraph stating: “ As respects the passing and limitation over of real or personal property dependent under the provisions of any instrument on the foster parent dying without heirs, the foster child is not deemed the child of the foster parent so as to defeat the rights of remaindermen,”
In the present instance, the will creating the trust provides expressly that, upon the death of the life beneficiary (child of the testatrix), the corpus shall be distributed among the lawful issue of such child. There is no statement in the instrument indicating or even implying that adopted grandchildren are to be included. Neither does this case involve adoption to the knowledge of the testatrix prior to the creation of the trust as in Matter of Upjohn (304 N. Y. 366). The mere circumstance that a testatrix is quoted as having looked with favor upon the adoption of children by childless couples is not sufficient, in my judgment, to overcome the effect of section 115 of the Domestic Relations Law.
For this reason, the order appealed from should be modified so as to direct payment of the remainder as provided by the will exclusive of the child adopted after testatrix’ death.
Order affirmed, etc.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.