Court Opinion

ID: 9706155
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 01:33:02.928509+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:22:19.717112
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Davis, dissenting: I feel constrained to dissent from the views expressed by the majority of the court. In doing so, I do not consider certain issues raised by the parties which are not determinative of this case. First, I disregard the subjective reasons for the first adoption of the child, Victor, by the Leichtenbergs, and the short period of time that Victor lived with his adopting parents. In 1918, Victor was adopted by the decedent and her husband by valid decree of the County Court of Cook County. That court had jurisdiction of the subject matter and of the parties. Its decree cannot be attacked collaterally. It established the status of Victor as an adopted child of the Leichtenbergs, and neither innuendo concerning the purposes of the resulting relationship, nor subsequent Wisconsin adoption decree can alter that status or its attendant legal consequences. Second, I set aside the question of whether the Wisconsin decree of adoption in 1920 can be collaterally attacked here. I believe that the record before us presents a clear legal question: When an adopted child is again adopted by others, prior to the death of his first adoptive parents, does he retain the right to inherit from his first adoptive parents? I believe this question ought to be answered in the affirmative. The reciprocal rights, duties, privileges, responsibilities, and liabilities created by the adoption statute are, in fact, those of parent and child. The right to inherit from either natural or adopting parents is likewise statutory and is not founded upon natural right nor is it protected by constitutional safeguards. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1953, chap. 3, pars. 162-165; 9 Ann. Cas. 726; Case Note 9 L.R.A. (n.s.) 121.) So also the right of adoption and its attendant legal consequences are matters of legislative grace and control. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1953, chap. 4, pars. 1-1 to 9-2.) As stated by one noted commentator, “Adoption being a matter of statute and not of common law, its effect upon the laws of succession is primarily a matter of the interpretation of the particular statute.” Simes, Cases on Trusts and Succession, 1942, p. 71. It is the clear legislative policy of our State that adopted children have the right to inherit from adopting parents. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1955, chap. 3, par. 165.) That right stands on the same legal footing as the legislative grant of the right of inheritance to natural children. In neither case does the child take by reason of blood or “birthright,” but only as a matter of legislative policy. This policy has constantly been toward the elimination of distinctions between natural and adopted children. (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1955, chap. 3, pars. 162-165, and chap. 4, pars. 1-1 to 9-2.) I cannot believe that the public policy of this State should permit the recognition of two classes of children, one inferior in legal status to the other. Rather, I believe that such policy should give to the adopted child all of the rights and privileges that such child was deprived of by a fortuitous circumstance. We were forced to interpret the legislative policy and fill the interstices of the statutory scheme in the case of In re Estate of Tilliski, 390 Ill. 273. We there held that a decree of adoption does not destroy the right of the adopted child to inherit from his natural parents. We there said that, “The same right of heirship from blood parents enjoyed by a natural child should not be taken from an adopted child unless clearly required by statute.” At the time of Victor’s first adoption the legislature had provided: “A child so adopted shall be deemed for the purposes of inheritance by such child * * * the child of the parents by adoption, the same as if he had been born to them in lawful wedlock * * (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1917, chap. 4, par. 5.) The Adoption Act further provided that from the date of the adoption decree, the adopted child “shall, to all legal intents and purposes be the child of petitioner.” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1917, chap. 4, par. 3. This language leaves little room for interpretation. I believe the legislature has attempted, by apt language, to remove all distinctions between the status and rights of natural parents and their children, and of adopting parents and adopted children. By the Cook County decree in 1918, Victor was given the status of a natural child of the Leichtenbergs, “the same as if he had been born to them in lawful wedlock.” He was “to all legal intents and purposes” their child. The right of inheritance of both the natural and the adopted child is destructible and is nothing more than a mere expectancy until the death of a parent. The right of the adopted child could be defeated by the same methods available to defeat the expectancy of a natural child — disinheritance by will, inter vivos gifts, etc. But there is nothing in our statutes or in logic to suggest that his status is more precarious than that of a natural child. The statutes of this State, not birth or adoption, create the capacity and right to inherit. The legislature has invested those born and those adopted with that capacity and right without distinction. I know of no law that can be found in this State which purports to destroy the capacity in one case and not the other. (Cf. Dreyer v. Schrick, 105 Kan. 495, 185 Pac. 30; 3 Univ. Fla. L. Rev. 237.) I believe that the right to inherit from an adopting parent is as clearly granted as the right to inherit from a natural parent, and that a subsequent adoption should destroy neither right unless clearly required by statute. In re Estate of Tilliski, 390 Ill. 273. The majority also contends that this view would create confusion in the law pertaining to inheritance, and expresses grave fear that all sets of adopting parents would inherit from an adopted child, thereby permitting an unworthy set of adopting parents to benefit from the generosity of others. Our statute relating to inheritance from adopted children, (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1955, chap. 3, par. 165,) without confusion or complexity, provides that a natural parent shall inherit from a lawfully adopted child only “the property that the child has taken from or through the natural parent or the lineal or collateral kindred of the natural parent by gift, by will, or under intestate laws.” If called upon in a proper action to determine such rights, as between the adopting parents, I suggest that this court could so do without the disorder anticipated. The conclusion which I have reached finds support in the majority of States which have considered this specific question. (Holmes v. Curl, 189 Iowa 246, 178 N.W. 406; Dreyer v. Schrick, 105 Kan. 495, 185 Pac. 30; Hawkins v. Hawkins, 218 Ark. 423, 236 S.W. 2d 733; In re Estate of Egley, 16 Wash. 2d 681, 134 Pac. 2d 943; Villier v. Watson, 168 Ky. 631, 182 S.W. 869; In re Myres’s Estate, 129 N.Y.S. 2d 531; Patterson v. Browning, 146 Ind. 160, 44 N.E. 993; In re Sutton’s Estate, 161 Minn. 426, 201 N.W. 925; Coonradt v. Sailors, 186 Tenn. 294, 209 S.W. 2d 859.) However, I am less concerned by the fact that this court is adopting a minority rule than I am by the fear that this decision engrafts limitations and disabilities onto the status of an adopted child that find no justification in logic or the language of the applicable statutes. I believe that the majority decision circumvents a consistent legislative policy—to eliminate all distinctions between a natural and an adopted child. For these reasons I feel forced to voice my dissent.