Court Opinion

ID: 9751382
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-28 16:23:06.906092+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:26:44.121731
License: Public Domain

JONES, Chief Justice
(concurring).
I feel compelled to concur in the result reached today by the majority but solely on the basis that the law governing the rights of adopted children at the time the settlor executed the instant deed of trust mandates this re-*307suit. See Wills Act of 1917, June 7, P.L. 403, § 16, 20 P.S. §§ 227, 228.
The settlor executed the inter vivos trust in 19441 making himself and his wife life tenants. The Wills Act of 1917 did not specifically excluded adopted children from sharing in the estate of their natural parents whereas the Intestate Act of 1917, June 7, P.L. 429, § 16(b), 20 P.S. § 102, made clear that “adopted persons shall not be entitled to inherit or take from or through their natural parents, grandparents, or collateral relatives. . . . (See Cave’s Estate, 326 Pa. 358, 366, 192 A. 460, 464 (1937) for a complete interpretation of that latter provision.)
This Court in Taylor Estate, 357 Pa. 120, 53 A.2d 136 (1947), construing a testamentary trust posing the same problem as we face today, decided in favor of the adopted child, stating:
“It remains but to be said that in [sic] absence of statute directing a different construction, the fact of adoption does not change the claimant’s description as issue of [the life tenant of the trust] whether being construed as made before or after the adoption. We are fortified in this conclusion by the fact that Section 16(b) of Intestate Act of 1917 expressly provided that an adopted person was not to be entitled to take from or through his natural relatives, whereas Section 16(b) of the Wills Act of 1917 makes no such exclusionary provision.”
357 Pa. at 124-125, 53 A.2d at 138-9. Accord, In re Buffington’s Trust, 26 Pa.D. & C.2d 551, 10 Chest. 328 (1963); In re Price’s Estate, 54 Berks 67 (1962).
Were this present case one involving a like situation to be construed under the Wills Act of 1947, April 24, P.L. 89, § 14, 20 P.S. § 180.14(6),2 however, Stephanie Tracy *308Kerns would be precluded from taking any share of her natural father’s estate by virtue of her adoption prior to the death of the settlor. The Act reads as follows:
“Adopted children. In construing a will making a devise or bequest to a person or persons described by relationship to the testator or to another, any person adopted before the death of the testator shall be considered the child of his adopting parent or parents and not the child of his natural parents . . . .” (Emphasis added).
For the reasons set forth above, I concur in the result.

. The trust was amended once in 1945.

. Repealed by Acts 1972, June 30, P.L. 508, No. 164, § 3, effective July 1, 1972. See 20 Pa.C.S.A. § 2514(7). The 1972 Act incorporates the above quoted provision of the 1947 Wills Act in toto.