189 F. 205 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Alabama | 1911
The bill of complaint in this cause was filed to determine the title to real estate in Alabama of which the plaintiffs are in possession through a tenant. The common source of title is Geqrge T. McGehee. The plaintiffs are his adoptive children by proceedings had under the láws of Eouisiana. The defendants are the next of kin, who would inherit his-real estate in Alabama, under its statute of descents, McGehee having died intestate, unless the plaintiffs are entitled- to it.
The plaintiffs support their right (1) under the statute of descents of Alabama, claiming to be children of intestate, and (2) by virtue of a contract claimed to. have arisen from the Eouisiana adoption proceedings, though ineffective in Alabama, between McGehee and wife, on the one hand, and the plaintiffs and their tutrix, on the other hand; they being, at the time, minors of tender years, the effect of which is alleged to have been to vest title in them in all the property of Mc-Gehee and his wife upon their- deaths. The defendants deny that title to the lands in Alabama passes to plaintiffs under either theory.
1. The Supreme Court of Alabama, in the case of Brown v. Finley, 157 Ala. 424, 47 South. 577, 21 L. R. A. (N. S.) 679, 131 Am. St. Rep. 68, construed the Alabama statute of descents so as to exclude adopted children, by proceedings in other states, from the term “children” as used in subdivision 1 of section 3754 of the Alabama Code, 1907, which provides for the descent of real estate in this state, holding that foreign adoption statutes had' no extraterritorial force.
2. The plaintiffs contend, further, that Louisiana adoption proceedings have the effect of a contract between the adopting parents and the adopted children, to give them the same rights in the parents’ real estate upon their death as if they were the natural children of the parents, and that this contract will be decreed to be specifically performed by a court of equity, after full performance by the parties. The act of adoption contains a declaration of adoption by McGehee and wife, a provision obligating them to support, maintain, and educate the adopted children, and an agreement investing “them with all the rights and benefits of legitimate children in their estate, in the same manner and to the same extent” as if they “had been the daughters of said George T. McGehee and Elizabeth B. McGehee.” It also contains an agreement on the part of their tutrix to surrender the entire parental authority over them to McGehee and wife. The bill avers that the adopting parents, “after their adoption and through many years of association that followed,” not only tenderly reared, educated, and carefully guarded them from all harm, but, in trtith and fact, they were beloved and cherished by said adopting parents “as if they were their own children.” The bill avers the performance of the children also in these words:
“That your orators on their part performed all the duties of children towards their adopting parents.”
The language of the notarial act, with reference to the rights of inheritance conferred by it on the plaintiffs, is substantially that of the Rouisiana adoption statute. Its use in the notarial act has, therefore, no significance other than to express what the law would imply. If it had been omitted, the legal meaning of the notarial act would have been unchanged. The adoption proceedings clearly show that the parties were proceeding under the Rouisiana act, and with no purpose to confer" rights on the adopted children, other than those conferred by adoption under, that law.
If, then, any such contract exists, it must be one that is implied from the proceedings of adoption, as distinguished from any peculiar language in which they are couched. The principle of giving contractual effect to defective adoption proceedings, in order that the intention of the parties may not fail of accomplishment by reason of such defect, has no application to the facts of this case; for here, the proceedings are valid and sufficient to create the relation of adopted children with all their incidental personal and property rights. The intention of the parties was in no way disappointed either as to the fact of adoption or as to the rights conferred by it on plaintiffs. They accomplished all they expected. This is especially true since, when the adoption proceedings were had the adopting parents owned no prop
The original sufficiency of the adoption to answer the intentions of the parties was turned into its present insufficiency by reason of the subsequent acquisition by the adopting parent of real estate in Alabama, a state which did not recognize the Louisiana proceedings as effective to transmit property under its statute of descents. This subsequently occurring fact cannot affect the intention of the parties at the time of the adoption or change the transaction, then entered into by them, nor can it justify the implication of an agreement to do what the parties then had no intention of doing, viz., of effecting a transfer of property by a method other than the adoption proceedings. The Louisiana proceeding was effective, in view of the location of the property then owned by the adopting parent, to do all the parties intended and for that reason it was resorted to. The inference is irresistible, from its adequacy to the then needs of the parties, that nothing more was intended by them than adoption. If nothing more than an adoption under the Louisiana law, with its incident property and personal rights, was then intended, there is no room for more to be implied, even though a change of ownership thereafter might make it desirable. The law by implication will not add a feature to the transaction, the occasion for the significance of which did not arise until long after the transaction was completed. The acts and contracts of parties are to be construed by their intentions when the acts were performed or the contracts made, and not by intentions which could have first been entertained only long after the commission of the acts or the making of the contracts.
The parties contented themselves with the adoption of plaintiffs under the Louisiana law because that method at that time answered completely their exigency. The plaintiffs therefore were vested by the adoption proceedings with the rights, and only the rights, of adopted children under the Louisiana law, for this was all the parties to the adoption thought necessary, at that time, to confer on them.
The situation, effected by the adoption, only becoming inadequate when the adopting parent, long afterwards, purchased property in Alabama, the remedy for the situation lay in measures then to be taken to transmit the title to such newdy acquired property. This is the general rule that prevails as to subsequently acquired property, not legally affected by a previously executed instrument, though the parties may desire it to be so affected.
If the purpose had been to leave to plaintiffs an interest in the estate of the adopting parent, and the adoption under the Louisiana law had been unadvisedly selected as a proper means of accomplishing this, a different case would be presented. In this case the controlling purpose was the adoption of the plaintiffs. The devolution of the property of the adopting parent to them was secondaty and merely incidental to the relation established by the adoption (petition for adoption, Complainants’ Exhibit B). Plaintiffs were only entitled to the property rights of adopted children in Louisiana, and they were acquired by them by the adoption.
The only théory, therefore, on which the plaintiffs’ rights can prevail is that there was an agreement, independent of the adoption, to leave to the plaintiffs shares in intestate’s property. The moment plaintiffs’ rights in the Alabama property are attempted to be worked out through the Louisiana adoption proceedings or the agreement to adopt, effectuated under the Louisiana law, we are confronted with the proposition that parties adopting that method, without further agreement, must intend to confer only such rights as it availed to confer. When it is conceded, as it is, that there is no agreement shown by the record, other than the adoption act, and when it appears that the Louisiana adoption is not recognized in Alabama as effectual to transmit real estate under its law of descents, the plaintiffs’ case fails.
The cases asserting the principle that enforces a defective adoption proceeding as a contract to adopt, and confers on the child the same property rights as the law would have conferred if the adoption had been valid, do not control this case, in which the adoption did not fail from invalidity. That line of cases, jn which a contract to devise and bequeath, separate and apart from the ineffectual means selected for its accomplishment, is found to exist, and in which the separate contract is specifically enforced, as in case of a defectively executed will, is to be distinguished from this case, in that in this case the agreement was solely to adopt and the rights of inheritance claimed were a mere incident to the adoption. The agreement to adopt was validly .
The case is that of parties intending to do a specific thing and being mistaken as to its legal effect. If the mutual intent is to do a specific thing, only, mistake as to the effect of the thing intended to be done cannot affect the rights of the parties. If there is a failure to validly do what parties intend to do, equity may remedy the invalid act and treat as done that which the parties intended to do. Equity, however, never interferes to accomplish that which the parties themselves never intended to do, because either originally or subsequently it appears to be more equitable than what the parties intended and did. Equity never makes agreements for parties which it then enforces.
There are subsequent declarations of the adopting parent found in the record, which tend to indicate his belief that his adopted children would acquire at his death all his property throug'h the adoption proceedings. Those declarations were based on a mistaken conception of the legal effect of the adoption on the transmission of title to the after-acquired Alabama property. They do not reflect light on what the parties intended to accomplish, at the time of the adoption, at which time the adopting parent had no property in Alabama. They may indicate a general purpose or desire on the part of the adopting parent that his adopted children should by virtue of the adoption inherit all his property. Such an ineffectual purpose or desire can neither confer or divest property rights.
The demurrer to the bill as amended is sustained.