Court Opinion

ID: 9462186
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 22:33:58.137366+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:37:26.746505
License: Public Domain

VAN GRAAFEILAND, Circuit Judge
(concurring):
Because our holding accords with the remedial purposes of the Social Security Act, I concur. I must, however, express my concern over the greatly expanded concept of the doctrine of “equitable adoption” which is emerging as a result of this and similar Social Security decisions. See, e. g., Broussard v. Weinberger, 499 F.2d 969 (5th Cir. 1974); Smith v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare, 431 F.2d 1241 (5th Cir. 1970).
Traditionally, the doctrine of equitable adoption has served only as the basis for a claim of property rights against the estate of a deceased would-be adopter, and an agreement to adopt has not been legally enforceable during the lifetime of the adoptive parent. The relationship of parent and child is a closely personal one; and, as a general rule, equity will not enforce a contract to create such a relationship. Where, as in West Virginia, there exists a statutory scheme of adoption, the statute itself precludes the court from compelling performance of a non-statutory agreement to adopt. Erlanger v. Erlanger, 102 Misc. 236, 168 N.Y.S. 928 (Sup.Ct.), aff’d without opinion, 185 App.Div. 888, 171 N.Y.S. 1084 (1st Dep’t. 1918); Besch v. Murphy, 190 Md. 539, 544, 59 A.2d 499, 501 (1948); Note, Equitable Adoption: They Took Him Into Their Home And Called Him Fred, 58 Va.L.Rev. 727, 730 (1972).
So long as appellant was alive, it is unlikely that, in matters unrelated to the Social Security Act, the Courts of West Virginia would have treated her grandson as her adopted child prior to the culmination of statutory adoption proceedings. The doctrine of equitable adoption would have come into play, if at all, only after appellant’s death.
My endorsement of my brothers’ definition of equitable adoption is therefore limited to its usage solely within the framework of the Social Security Act and under the peculiar facts of this case.