Opinion ID: 2068832
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: facts

Text: [¶ 2] Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to the non-prevailing party, Patricia, the following evidence is established in the summary judgment record. See McIntyre v. Nice, 2001 ME 174, ¶ 7, 786 A.2d 620, 621. Olive and Patricia became involved in an intimate relationship in 1979. Early in their relationship, Patricia left her job and moved with Olive to New York. For the duration of their relationship, Patricia was financially dependent on Olive. [¶ 3] Olive and Patricia spent two to four weeks each summer at a home in North Haven, Maine, which was owned by Olive. The home was furnished with some personal belongings, a boat and a car were kept at the home permanently, the grounds were cared for year-round, and Olive paid Maine property taxes on the property. [¶ 4] In order to protect Patricia financially, Olive and Patricia sought legal advice as to whether Olive could adopt Patricia. The State of New York prohibited such adult adoptions between same-sex couples at that time. Both New York and Maine counsel advised the couple, however, that pursuant to the provisions of the adoption statute then in effect, Maine Probate Courts could grant adoptions if either the adopting party resided in Maine, or the party being adopted lived in Maine. [1] See 19 M.R.S.A. § 531 (Supp.1991). Maine counsel further advised them that the summer home in North Haven, located in Knox County, would likely provide a sufficient connection to Maine to confer jurisdiction to the Knox County Probate Court to allow it to grant the adoption. [¶ 5] In 1991, on the advice of Maine counsel, Olive petitioned the Knox County Probate Court to adopt Patricia. In the petition, Patricia listed the North Haven address as the place where she lived at the time, and Olive listed her New York address as the place where she resided at the time. Patricia and Olive spent approximately three weeks prior to the adoption at the North Haven home in 1991. During the uncontested adoption hearing, Patricia was not asked how long she had lived in North Haven, and did not volunteer the information that the North Haven home listed in the petition as the place where she lives was a vacation home, or that she had been there for only three weeks preceding the hearing. [¶ 6] With Patricia's consent, the court issued a decree of adoption dated August 21, 1991. Less than a year later, in July of 1992, Patricia and Olive ended their intimate relationship. [¶ 7] Watson and Gillespie are trustees of two trusts in Olive's family in which Patricia may be entitled to share as a legal grandchild by virtue of her status as Olive's adopted daughter. On September 8, 2005, the trustees filed a petition in the Probate Court seeking annulment of the adoption and a declaratory judgment that the adoption is null and void. [2] In it, they alleged that the couple obtained the adoption by fraud in that they did not disclose their relationship to the court, and because, as New York residents at the time, Patricia and Olive had not fulfilled the statutory requirements of living or residing in Maine necessary to give the Knox County Probate Court jurisdiction to issue the decree of adoption. [3] See 18-A M.R.S. § 9-315(a) (2008). [¶ 8] Patricia moved for a summary judgment on the ground that it was undisputed that she lived in Maine in 1991 within the meaning of the adoption statute, and argued that the trustees were barred from collaterally attacking the adoption based on fraud. In a decision dated April 17, 2008, the court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction in 1991 to entertain Olive's adoption petition because the undisputed facts established that Patricia did not live in Maine and Olive did not reside in Maine at that time within the meaning of the then-existing adoption statute, 19 M.R.S.A. § 531. The court thus permitted a collateral attack on the adoption on the basis of fraud, and entered a summary judgment annulling the adoption. Patricia filed this appeal. [4]