Court Opinion

ID: 9757459
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 22:41:38.791502+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:28:39.564011
License: Public Domain

Concurring Opinion by
Mr. Justice Musmanno:
I concur with the majority decision in this case, but with considerable reluctance.
The Adoption Act of April 4, 1925, P. L. 127, as amended by the Act of June 30, 1947, P. L. 1180, section 3, 1 PS 4, declares that an adopted person “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.”
There are no limitations in this grant of right and this imposition of duties. The child shall have ALL the rights of a natural child born of his parents. And one of the rights of a child is to transmit property from his parents to his own children. If the adopted child becomes to all legal intents and purposes the actual child of his adopting parents, then it follows that he becomes the automatic transmitter of benefits from his parents to his children as any father is the link between grandfather and grandchildren.
The Act of May 4, 1855, P. L. 430, as amended, and under which the adoption in this case occurred, declares that the adopted child “shall assume the name of the adopting parent, and have all the rights of a *484child and heir of such adopting parent, and be subject to the duties of such child.”
The adopted person in this case, Sadie Strunk, was less than three years old when she became by law the “child and heir” of Milton R. Strunk and Kate C. Strunk. Sadie Strunk made her home with her adopting parents not only through her childhood and maid-hood, but even after she was married. There can be no question that her children were accepted as grandchildren of Milton R. and Kate C. Strunk. If the adoption proceedings made Sadie a full child of the adopting parents, the bond of kinship should strengthen rather than weaken with the passing of time.
Not only does the statute make an adopted child the unlimited child of the adopting parents but reason and justice support that relationship. An adopted child becomes the legal offspring of its parents as the result of a deliberative process, no less sincere than the conception of a natural child. There is no difference between the responsibility of a parent toward an adopted child and his responsibility toward a natural child. At Roman Law, “adoptions produced the right of succession to the name, the property, and the lares: ‘hereditates nominis, pecuniae, sacrorum secutae sunt,’ Pro Dom. §13’ ” (Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 3rd Ed., Vol. I, p. 146.)
I do not believe that anyone would ever have questioned that the children of an adopted child are the full legal grandchildren of the adopting parents, were it not for the Inheritance Tax Act of June 20, 1919, P. L. 521, 72 PS 2302, which provides for a 2% tax on property passing “to or for the use of father, mother, husband, wife, children, lineal descendants born in lawful wedlock, legally adopted children, children of a former husband or wife, or the wife or widow, of the son, of a person dying seized or possessed thereof.. ..”
*485This brought the Inheritance Tax Act in direct conflict with the Adoption Act, but it is not our province to nullify any law merely because it contradicts another law. We must and do assume that the Legislature was aware of the conflict and intended the Adoption Act to make an adopted child the full child of his adopting parents in every respect except as to allowing his children to benefit from lower inheritance taxes.
Had not the cold, calculating eye of the tax collector fallen on the chance of gaining increased revenues by distinguishing between children of natural parents and children of adoptive parents, the question as to whether the children of an adopted child are grandchildren of the adopting parents would be moot and supererogatory.
As pointed out in the Majority Opinion, the Intestate Act of June 7, 1917, P. L. 429, Section 16 (b) provides that “The person adopted shall, for all purposes of inheritance and taking by devolution, be a member of the family of the adopting parent or parents.” (Emphasis supplied)
It cannot be doubted that the greatest benefit enjoyed by any parent is that which permits the full sharing in that benefit by his children. And therein lies the incongruity brought about by the conflict between the Adoption and the Inheritance Tax Acts. The Adoption Act engrafts a child to the family tree and permits him to enjoy its beauty, shade and shelter but prohibits him from sharing with his own children the fruit falling into his lap from that same tree.