Title: In re Estate of Gillin

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

In re Estate of Gillin (2000-373); 172 Vt. 546; 773 A.2d 270

[Filed 19-Mar-2001]

                                 ENTRY ORDER

                      SUPREME COURT DOCKET NO. 2000-373

                             JANUARY TERM, 2001

In re Estate of John P. Gillin	       }	APPEALED FROM:
                                       }
                                       }
                                       }	Franklin Superior Court
                                       }	
                                       }
                                       }	DOCKET NO. S 377-99 Fc

                                                Trial Judge: Edward J. Cashman

             In the above-entitled cause, the Clerk will enter:

       This is an appeal by Petitioners Esther Kearney, Margaret Raleigh and
  Charlotte Keefe, from  an order of the Franklin Superior Court dismissing
  their appeal from the Franklin Probate Court.   The Probate Court denied
  petitioners' claim as adoptive first cousins to the estate of John P.
  Gillin,  who died intestate on May 24, 1984.  At the time of Gillin's
  death, no heirs by blood survived him,  and the Vermont statutes in effect
  at the time prohibited collateral relatives, such as petitioners, from 
  inheriting from a person who had been adopted.  See 15 V.S.A. § 448 (1963). 
  The primary property  in the estate was a 155-acre farm located in
  Fairfield, which passed to the Town of Fairfield by Order  of Escheat on
  August 15, 1985.  Petitioners' claim is based on our subsequent decision in
  MacCallum  v. Seymour's Administrator, 165 Vt. 452, 453,