Jones v. Security First National Bank

DORAN, J.

From the stipulation as to facts it appears that petitioner Sylvia Jones was born April 13, 1913, at Norwalk, Connecticut; that thereafter petitioner’s father and

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mother were divorced and the father married the decedent who on May 20, 1920, adopted petitioner under the laws of Connecticut. Petitioner’s father, with petitioner and the decedent, then moved to the State of New York where on June 13, 1925, the petitioner’s grandmother, Agnes L. Russell, adopted petitioner under the laws of New York. Clarence L. Jones, petitioner’s father, died in Syracuse, New York on February 28, 1932; the decedent Helen M. Jones (Zaepfel), widow of petitioner’s father, then moved to Los Angeles, California, remarried, and died there on November 10, 1948. The will of Helen M. Zaepfel, duly probated, left the entire estate to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Helen, and recited : “I declare that I am a widow; that I have no children; that I have no brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, descendants or ancestors now living. ’ ’

The trial court found “That the petitioner, Sylvia Jones, is neither a spouse, brother, sister, nephew, niece, descendant nor ancestor who, under the Will or the laws of succession, is entitled to take the property bequeathed or devised in said Will”; that the gift to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Helen, is valid and that such beneficiary is entitled to succeed to the entire estate.

“It is the position of appellant, both by the weight of authority and reason, that her adoption in the State of New York did not deprive her of the right to inherit from her prior adoptive parent, namely the decedent herein.” Appellant notes in this connection that both under the laws of Connecticut where the adoption by decedent occurred, and in California, under section 257 of the Probate Code, an adopted child inherits from its adoptive parents. Section 115 of the Domestic Relations Law of New York provides that “the rights of a foster child to inheritance and succession from his natural parents remain unaffected by adoption,” from which it is argued that the second adoption (in New York) did not deprive the child’s right to inherit from the previous adoptive parent, namely the decedent.

Respondent’s position is that “Appellant, who is now the adopted child of a stranger to decedent but who was once an adopted child of the decedent, is not a person entitled, under the laws of California, to succeed to decedent’s property. She is neither spouse, brother, sister, nephew, niece, descendant nor ancestor of the decedent and is therefore outside the application of Section 41 of the Probate Code.”