Matter of Piel case brief

Matter of Piel case brief summary
884 N.E.2d 1040 (2008)

CASE SYNOPSIS

Appellants, a trustee, a guardian ad litem, and two daughters of a trust's beneficiary, sought review of a decision of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the Fourth Judicial Departments (New York), which reversed a surrogate court's decision that the class gift in the trust at issue did not presumptively include adopted-out children, such as respondent, an adopted-out daughter of the beneficiary.

CASE FACTS
The grantor created two irrevocable trusts, one in 1926 and one in 1963, for the lifetime benefit of the beneficiary, the grantor's daughter; upon the beneficiary's death, the principal was to be distributed to the beneficiary's descendants. The adopted-out daughter was granted permission to intervene in the two instant proceedings for judicial settlement of the final account for each trust, but her objections to each account were dismissed.

DISCUSSION

• The appellate division reversed, and on further appeal, the court reversed. 
• No evidence was presented of the grantor's intent to include or exclude a person from the class gift. 
• While Domestic Relations Law § 117 was not amended until 1963 to terminate an adopted child's rights to inheritance and succession from the biological family unless expressly intended by the grantor, nothing in the pre-1964 legislative history or case law indicated that an adopted-out child would share in a class gift to a biological parent's issue, descendants, or children. 
• The finality of judicial decrees would be compromised if adopted-out children were included in such class gifts.

CONCLUSION
The court reversed the appellate division's order and reinstated the surrogate court's decrees.

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