Other Cases Affecting Children

Estate of Louis Joseph (1998) 17 Cal.4th 203 [949 P.2d 472, 70 Cal.Rptr.2d 619]. Court of Appeal, Fourth District, Division 3.

In this probate case, the petitioner was the foster child of the deceased who died intestate. The petitioner had been raised by the deceased from the age of three until majority and was supported by the decedent while she attended college. While petitioner was a child, the decedent and his wife periodically asked petitioner's natural parents if they could adopt her; however, they were always refused. After decedent passed away, petitioner asked for and received from the probate court letters of administration of the estate. Petitioner also asked the court for a determination that she was the daughter of the decedent, his sole heir, and entitled to distribution of his estate. Respondent, who is the decedent's brother, opposed. The probate court found that petitioner was not the decedent's daughter and, as such, not entitled to any portion of the distribution of his estate. The court also revoked her letters of administration. The probate court's decision was based on Probate Code section 6454, which states that the "relationship of parent and child exists between [a] person and the person's foster parent or stepparent if" "(a) [t]he relationship began during the person's minority and continued throughout the joint lifetimes of the person and the person's foster or stepparent," and "(b) [i]t is established by clear and convincing evidence that the foster parent or stepparent would have adopted the person but for a legal barrier." Petitioner petitioned the Court of Appeal, but it affirmed the trial court ruling.

Petitioner then filed a petition for review with the California Supreme Court. The court granted review to settle the conflict between two conflicting Court of Appeal decisions on the issue of when the legal barrier to adoption must exist. The Sixth Appellate District held in Estate of Stevenson (1992) 11 Cal.App.4th 852, that the legal barrier to adoption must only exist at the time when adoption is contemplated or attempted. The Second Appellate District held in Estate of Cleveland (1993) 17 Cal.App.4th 1700, that the legal barrier must exist until death for a foster or step-child to inherit through intestate succession from a foster or stepparent. The court held that Cleveland was correct and that the legal barrier to adoption must have begun during the child's minority and continued until the death of the foster or step parent. The court reasoned that the plain language of the statute mandates this result. "If a legal barrier to adoption did not continue, it could not continue to be the necessary cause of the failure to adopt: it could not operate when it was not effective. If a legal barrier to adoption did not continue together with an intent to adopt, it did not continue to be the necessary cause of the failure to adopt: it may not be said to have prevented what was not even undertaken." (Original Italics.) The court found that the legal barriers to adoption no longer existed and that, therefore, the decedent could have adopted petitioner. The court also noted that decedent could have provided for petitioner in a valid will at the time of his death or in a previous will.