Interesting Adoption Case

In 1959, the settlor created New York trusts for the issue of his children which expressly stated that “adoptions shall not be recognized.”  One of the settlor’s daughters and her husband became parents of fraternal twins through a surrogacy arrangement under which an anonymously donated ova was fertilized with the husband’s sperm and carried to term by an unrelated surrogate mother.  The agreement was governed by California law and a California court subsequently issued a judgment of paternal relationship establishing the daughter and her husband as the parents of the twins.  The trustees petitioned for construction of the trust.

The court in the case of In re Doe, No. 3013-1980, 2005 WL 236164 (N.Y. Sur. Ct. Jan. 25, 2005), held that the settlor did not intend to extend the exclusion of “adoptions” to the assisted reproduction techniques at issue and that the California paternity order was entitled to full faith and credit in New York.

Special thanks to Prof. William P. LaPiana for bringing this case to my attention.