Glanding v. Industrial Trust Co.

46 A.2d 881, 29 Del. Ch. 517, 1946 Del. LEXIS 16
CourtSupreme Court of Delaware
DecidedApril 29, 1946
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 46 A.2d 881 (Glanding v. Industrial Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Delaware primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Glanding v. Industrial Trust Co., 46 A.2d 881, 29 Del. Ch. 517, 1946 Del. LEXIS 16 (Del. 1946).

Opinion

Speakman, Judge,

delivering the opinion of the court:

Herman Glanding died a resident of Delaware, on or [520]*520about January 11, 1943, having first made his last will wherein he did provide, in part, as follows:

“Second: I give, devise and bequeath unto my beloved wife, Alice W. Glanding, all my property, real, personal and mixed, of whatever nature or kind, and wheresoever the same may be situate, to her and her heirs and assigns forever.”

This is the only pertinent provision in the will. Alice W. Glanding, the testator’s wife, died during his lifetime, the provision for her benefit lapsed and the estate in effect became an intestate estate.

Herman Glanding was the father of three children. Two of them, Howard S. Glanding and Reba W. Taylor, survived him. The other child, Charles Wesley Glanding, died July 25, 1941, which was during the lifetime of his father; he left no lineal descendants by birth, but he did leave surviving him an adopted daughter, June Ellen Glanding, the appellant herein.

The adoption proceedings were in the Municipal Court of Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. They were instituted upon petition of Charles Wesley Glanding and Edith Glanding, his wife. In their petition it appeared that they resided in Wilmington, Delaware, that they desired to adopt Mary Elizabeth Bell, who was born on March 6, 1928, at Langhorne, Bucks County, Pennsylvania; that the child had been in their custody since March 24, 1929, and upon adoption they desired that the child should be known as June Ellen Glanding.

The Pennsylvania Adoption Act of 1925, P.L. 127, provides in Section 1 thereof, 1 P.S. § 1, that

“It shall be lawful for any adult citizen of this Commonwealth residing therein, desirous of adopting any person, either a minor or an adult, as his or her heir or as one of his or her heirs, to present his or her petition to the Orphans’ Court, or to a law judge thereof, of the county where he or she may be a resident, or of the county in which the person to be adopted is a resident, declaring such desire

[521]*521And in Section 4 of said Act, 1 P.S. § 4, it is provided that

“If satisfied that the statements made in the petition are true, and that the welfare of the person proposed to be adopted will be promoted by such adoption, and that all the requirements of this act have been complied with, the court or judge shall make a decree so finding and reciting the facts at length, and directing that the person proposed to be adopted shall have all the rights of a child and heir of such adopting parent or parents, and be subject to the duties of such child: * * *. If desired by the parties the decree may also provide that the adopted person shall assume the name of the adopting parent or parents. * * *”

On July 9, 1935, the Pennsylvania Assembly passed an act validating certain adoption proceedings. P.L. 612, No. 214, Sec. 1, 1 P.S. § 5. It provided that

“Any adoption heretofore granted or decreed by any court of record of this Commonwealth in which either the person or persons adopting, or the person or persons adopted, was a non resident or were non residents of this Commonwealth at the time such adoption was granted or decreed * * * is hereby declared valid and lawful as though made with full observance of all the requirements of the said act of Assembly mentioned: Provided, That the petition and decree for such adoption was otherwise in accordance with the act of Assembly pertaining thereto.”

It appears to have been admitted in the court below that at the time of the adoption proceedings the appellant was a resident of Pennsylvania. No question has been raised concerning the fact that it appears that the petitioners were nonresidents of Pennsylvania at the time of the adoption proceedings, or concerning the jurisdiction of the Municipal Court of Philadelphia County or the regularity of the proceedings therein, or the effect of the validating act, so the validity of the adoption will be assumed.

The courts have frequently been called upon to consider the status of an adopted child under local statutes of descent and distribution, where the adoption proceedings were in a foreign jurisdiction.

[522]*522In Finkenzeller’s Estate, 105 N.J. Eq. 44, 146 A. 656, 657, affirmed in 107 N.J. Eq. 180, 151 A. 905, it was said:

“The weight of authority in this country is that a child adopted in a foreign state or country may take under local statutes of descent and distribution, if such foreign state or country had jurisdiction to fix his status with respect to his adoptive parents, and if the law with regard to adoption, of the state in which the real and personal property is situated, does not differ essentially from the laws of the state in which the adoption was had, so that local public policy is not violated by recognizing and giving effect to the adoption proceedings of the foreign state or country.”

The rules as stated in Restatement, Conflict of Lems, are somewhat broader. They are as follows:

“8143. Effect of Foreign Adoption. The status of adoption, created by the law of a state having jurisdiction to create it, will be given the same effect in another state as is given to the status of adoption when created by its own law.”
“8305. Adopted Child as Distributee. A person who has been made an adopted child will be treated for the purpose of distribution as if he were a natural-born legitimate child of his adopted parents if the law that regulates distribution gives such effect to adoption.”

To 8305 there is the added comment:

“b. If the law of the state of the decedents’ domicile allows an adopted child to take a distributive share, a legally adopted child will take a share although the law of the state of adoption where the chattel is provides otherwise. If the law of the state of the decedents’ domicile does not allow an adopted child to take a distributive share he cannot do so, although the law of the state where the chattel is would allow him to take.”

The language of the court in the above case and of the said rules in the Restatement are amply supported by the cases contained in the comprehensive annotations appearing in 73 A.L.R. 968; 64 L.R.A. 186; 21 L.R.A. (N.S.) 679; 25 L.R.A. (N.S.) 1285; L.R.A. 1916A, 666; 12 Am. St. Rep. 100; Ann. Cas. 1916B, 89; 5 Eng. Rul. Cas. 763.

An examination of the Pennsylvania and Delaware adoption statutes will disclose that, independent of and apart from the inheritance statutes of the two states, they are [523]*523not so essentially different as to preclude the application of the above rules in the present case; therefore, we have no hesitation in saying that the personal status of the appellant, as an adopted child, should be recognized in this state, with the same rights and privileges in this state as if the adoption proceedings had been taken within this state pursuant to our laws.

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Bluebook (online)
46 A.2d 881, 29 Del. Ch. 517, 1946 Del. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/glanding-v-industrial-trust-co-del-1946.