Court Opinion

ID: 9665425
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 00:48:28.054602+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:15:15.762000
License: Public Domain

MacLaughlin, Justice
(dissenting).
The trial court made the following findings of fact:
“II
“That after the filing of this petition, the Court requested an investigative study be made by the Ramsey County Welfare Department. That that investigation determined the sole purpose of this adoption was to enable Mrs. Berston to inherit through a trust fund established by her estranged husband for their son. That the trust is to be distributed to the petitioner when he *28reaches the age of 45, or to his issue if he should die prior to such age. That if the petitioner should die without issue before he reaches the age of 45, the trust is to go to a school of medicine. That there is no provision in this trust for the estranged wife, Maxine M. Berston. That as the result of this study by the Ramsey County Welfare Department, the Commissioner of Public Welfare recommended to the Court on December 28, 1969, that the petition for adoption be denied.
“IV
“That the proposed adoption in this matter is contrary to public policy. That the proposed adoption does not meet and fulfill the purposes for adoptions established in Minnesota law.”
Appellant has not contested Paragraph II of the findings of fact made by the trial court. Therefore, we must assume as a fact that the sole purpose for this adoption is to enable Mrs. Berston to inherit through a trust fund established by her divorced, and now deceased, husband, in which there is no provision whatever for any distribution to Mrs. Berston.
It is clear, and uncontested, that Mrs. Berston’s former husband did not intend that his ex-wife benefit from the trust. The sole purpose of the son in this attempted adoption of his mother is to frustrate that intention. I believe this court should hold that it is against the public policy of the State of Minnesota for a son to adopt his mother for the sole purpose of frustrating the intent of an express trust established by her former husband.