In re Walworth's Estate

82 A. 7, 85 Vt. 322, 1912 Vt. LEXIS 193
Supreme Court of Vermont·Decided January 8, 1912·Published·Cited by 31 cases

Opinion

Watson, J.

On the 18th day of April, 1909, George W. Walworth died intestate at Bennington, this State, the place of his residence, leaving a solvent estate in this State consisting mostly of real property. He left surviving him a wife, Jennie L. Walworth, and several brothers and sisters (the exceptants in this case), but no father or mother. On January 15, 1885, [324] by an instrument of adoption properly executed, filed, and recorded pursuant to the statute (It. L. Ch. 127) the intestate, then single, duly and legally adopted one Maggie Mitchell, then a minor, as his heir at law. Subsequent to such adoption, and on October 17, 1901, the intestate married Jennie L., she then knowing of said adoption, but at no time assenting or dissenting to or from the same. Subsequent to her adoption Maggie married, and after the marriage of her adoptive father and within his lifetime she died leaving a son, Howard M. Scott, born in marriage, surviving her. Howard M., now a minor, by his guardian claims in consequence of the adoption of his mother to be an heir of the intestate by right of representation, and as such entitled to a distributive share of his estate. No children were ever born to the intestate. The .court below decreed pro forma that Howard M. is an heir at law of the intestate, and that he is entitled to two-thirds of the intestate’s estate remaining for distribution, the widow to the remaining one-third, and that the brothers and sisters of the intestate take nothing. To this decree exceptions were severally taken by the widow, the brothers and sisters.

By Laws of 1880, No. 137, Sec. 1, “any person other than a married woman, of full age and sound mind, and any husband and wife, may adopt any other person as his or their heir at law with or without change of name of the person adopted.” Sections 2, 3, 4, and 5 prescribe the method of procedure, and the form of the instrument to be executed to effect such adoption. And by sec. 6, “ Such instrument shall, if it appears to the probate court that the provisions of the statute have been complied with, be recorded in the probate office where it is filed. And upon the proper execution and filing of such an instrument the same rights, duties and obligations and the same rights of inheritance shall exist between the parties as though the person adopted had been the legitimate child of the person or persons making the adoption, except that the person so adopted shall not be capable of taking property expressly limited to the heirs of the body or bodies of the parties making such adoption. And the natural parents of a minor shall be deprived, by the adoption, of all legal rights as respects the control of such minor, and such minor shall be freed from all obligation of obedience [325] and maintenance as respects his natural parents.” The law of these sections appears in R. L. 2536-2541, without change, and was in force at the time of the making of the adoption hereinbefore mentioned.

The question then is, 'whether the child of the adopted daughter deceased is entitled to inherit through her by right of representation a share in the adoptive father’s intestate estate. This question, now for the first time before this Court, is not on the face of the statute altogether free from doubt.

The doctrine of adoption was unknown to the common law of England, and in this country, in states whose jurispruddence is based exclusively on that system, it exists only by statute. Matter of Thorne, 155 N. Y. 140, 49 N. E. 661; Burrage v. Briggs, 120 Mass. 103; Ross v. Ross, 129 Mass. 243, 37 Am. Rep. 321; Morrison v. Estate of Sessions, 70 Mich. 297, 14 Am. St. Rep. 500, 38 N. W. 249. It has, however, been recognized by the civil law from the earliest days of its existence, and on the provisions of that law our statute, as well as largely the statutes of adoption in the different states of the Union, has been founded. It is therefore reasonable and proper to look to the civil law for the proper definition of the term, and in aid of the interpretation of the provisions in question. Power v. Hafley, 85 Ky. 671, 4 S. W. 683, 9 Ky. Law Rep. 369; Gray v. Holmes, 57 Kans. 217, 33 L. R. A. 207, 45 Pac. 596; Humphries v. Davis, 100 Ind. 274, 50 Am. Rep. 788. In the case last cited, where the construction of an adoption statute was under consideration, the court said: “A statute is not to be construed as if it stood solitary and alone, complete and perfect in itself, and isolated from all other laws. It is not to be expected that a statute which takes its place in a general system of jurisprudence shall be so perfect as to require no support from the rules and statutes of the system of which it becomes apart, or so clear in all its terms as to furnish in itself all the light needed for its construction. It is proper to look to other statutes, to the rules of the common law, to the sources from which the statute was derived, to the general principles of equity, to the object of the statute, and to the condition of affairs existing when the statute was adopted.”

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In re Walworth's Estate, 82 A. 7, 85 Vt. 322, 1912 Vt. LEXIS 193 (Vt. 1912).

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