Same-Sex Adoption as Creating “Grandchild?”

In 1991, Olive Watson adopted her same-sex partner, Patricia Spado.  By doing so, Olive made Patricia her “child” so that she would be able to inherit from her upon Olive’s death.

In 2004, Olive’s father’s widow died triggering trusts which provide distributions to Olive’s father’s grandchildren.  Patricia, as an adopted grandchild, is claiming that she is entitled to a share of the trust.

However, the relationship between Olive and Patricia is no longer harmonious and Olive’s family is attempting to set aside the adoption by claiming that the proceeding was somehow fraudulent, e.g., that Patricia lied about her state of residence or that she deceived the court about the adoption by not telling the court about her sexual relationship with Olive.

See Sarah Mahoney, Maine lesbian “adoptee” case tests legal bounds, Yahoo News, Feb. 10, 2007.

Special thanks to Sara Hudman (J.D. Candidate, Texas Tech University School of Law) and Payson Lederman (attorney, California) for bringing this article to my attention.