Court Opinion

ID: 9740435
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 20:35:25.436023+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:18.268696
License: Public Domain

CARTER, Justice
(dissenting).
The majority finds the word “child” within the phrase “legally adopted child” as used in the trust instrument to be ambiguous and concludes that our rules of construction require reversal of the grant of summary judgment. Because I do not find the term “legally adopted child” ambiguous, I am compelled to dissent.
The majority concedes that under the law existing at the time the instrument was executed, which the settlor is presumed to have been aware of, “legally adopted child” would include both those who are minors and those who are adults at the time of adoption. This was the import of Iowa Code section 600.6 (1950). Thus, the meaning of the term under Iowa law at the relevant time appears to have been well settled. The term is not ambiguous; it indicates a status resulting from a legal proceeding, see Wooster v. Iowa State Tax Commission, 230 Iowa 797, 298 N.W. 922 (1941), regardless of the age of the adoptee.
The majority suggests that the language of the trust instrument is ambiguous concerning whether the reference to “child” means before or after the adoption. Such ambiguity is manufactured by improperly considering the word “child” out of context of the whole document. The phrase to be interpreted is not “child” but rather “legally adopted child.” One cannot be a legally adopted child until after the adoption. When considered as a whole, there is no uncertainty in the language employed and rules of construction are not required.
The majority’s reliance on the rules of construction contained in Elliott v. Hiddle*366son, 303 N.W.2d 140 (Iowa 1981), is inappropriate. The settlor is her own lexicographer when she speaks in words of unmistakable legal meaning. In Hallbaeh, The Rights of Adopted Children Under Class Gifts, 50 Iowa L.Rev. 971 (1965), the author makes clear that his proposed revision to the stranger to the adoption rule is to be applied only in the absence of controlling language in the document. Id. at 981. He states: “Of course, if an intention to include or exclude adopted children is expressed in the instrument, the intention will be given effect.” Id. at 975.
The result reached by the majority on the present record suggests that it is deciding the case based upon its belief that the set-tlor did not really intend the meaning which the language of the trust instrument clearly conveys rather than upon any uncertainty in the language which was employed. In so doing, it acts without any evidence in the record to suggest that the settlor intended other than that which the writing provides. There are times when judges face a strong temptation to assume that others intend that which the judges would have intended had they been in the same situation. Because such assumption will often prove to be false, such temptations must be resisted. The assumption should be that if the meaning of the language is clear, it expresses that which was intended. I would affirm the trial court.