Court Opinion

ID: 9778179
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 20:34:58.284569+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:04.367319
License: Public Domain

*637MONTGOMERY, Judge
(dissenting).
I agree with the result in the majority opinion but disagree with the reasoning. As indicated in previous dissents in the Bedinger and Edmands cases, I feel that the correct rule is stated in Copeland v. State Bank & Trust Company, 300 Ky. 432, 188 S.W.2d 1017.
The majority opinion speaks of adoption as an accepted practice since Biblical times. However, as pointed out in the dissent in the Bedinger case, consanguinity is so fundamental in the passage of property by inheritance and by will any course of descent that will take property of deceased persons out of the current of their blood stream should be expressed in explicit and unmistakable language. 1 Am.Jur., Adoption of Children, Section 63, page 664; 2 C.J.S. Adoption of Children § 63d, page 455.
Further, I feel that the Court has overlooked the fact that the status of adoption while creating ordinarily the incidents of the relation of parent and child between the adoptive parent and the adopted child, does not determine or change the status of the adopted child as to any person such as the testator who is not a party to the adoption proceeding, especially a testator who has been dead for years, as in the Bedinger and Edmands cases and in this case. 2 C.J.S. Adoption of Children § 57a, page 449.
There is a further policy reason why the Court should reject in toto the absurd results reached in the cases mentioned. The increased frequency with which these cases are arising raises the question of whether, as the word gets around, there will be more adoption or treasure hunts as they may be called which take advantage of the provision in a will wherein an estate is left for life with remainder to children, heirs, etc. In every such instance where there are no children or heirs, the way has been opened by use of adoption to take advantage of the testator and his estate. This seems to me to be highly objectionable. All that the majority opinion does is to lower the age limit of the potential beneficiary of any such modern day piracy.
I, therefore, respectfully dissent.