Crawford v. Wilson
| Decision Date | 15 April 1913 |
| Citation | 78 S.E. 30,139 Ga. 654 |
| Parties | CRAWFORD et al. v. WILSON. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
A parol obligation by a person to adopt the child of another as his own accompanied by a virtual, though not a statutory adoption, and acted upon by all parties concerned for many years and during the obligor's life, may be enforced in equity upon the death of the obligor by decreeing the child entitled as a child to the property of the obligor undisposed of by will.
Such an equitable suit is maintainable by the child in her own name against the administrators of the obligor.
Where the contract for adoption is made by the grandmother of the child at the instance of the mother, and is subsequently ratified and renewed between the person adopting the child and the mother, in a suit by the child, of the nature described in the preceding headnotes, against the administrators of the person contracting to adopt, the grandmother and the mother are competent witnesses to prove the contract.
The plaintiff is not barred of her equitable cause of action referred to in headnotes 1 and 2, where the suit is instituted within a few months after the obligor's death notwithstanding the plaintiff may be 30 years of age at the time of the institution of the suit.
The action in the instant case does not fall within the provisions of the Civil Code 1910, § 4015, exempting administrators from suits on debts due by their intestate until after the lapse of 12 months from their qualification as administrators.
One of the prayers of the plaintiff is to enjoin the administrators from further proceeding with their application before the court of ordinary for leave to sell the land as that of their intestate. Inasmuch as the plaintiff does not occupy the legal status of heir or creditor, she cannot contest in the court of ordinary, with the administrators, their right to administer the estate of their intestate. And her equitable claim to the property growing out of the defendant's intestate's failure to consummate the plaintiff's adoption as a child extends to the whole estate of the intestate, and as the personal estate is sufficient to pay all debts, equity will preserve the status of the realty by enjoining a sale of it pending the litigation.
But as it was not shown that the administrators were guilty of waste or mismanagement, and the circumstances are not such as to indicate that the rights of all the parties would be more effectually and expeditiously protected and enforced by the appointment of a receiver, it was error to appoint a receiver, and, on interlocutory hearing, to divest the administrators of the possession of the property of their intestate, pending the litigation.
Error from Superior Court, Hall County; J. B. Jones, Judge.
Petition by Daisy Puckett Wilson against J. D. Crawford and others administrators. Judgment for petitioner, and defendants bring error. Affirmed, with directions.
J. H. Skelton, of Hartwell, and H. H. Dean, of Gainesville, for plaintiffs in error.
H. H. Perry and W. A. Charters, both of Gainesville, for defendant in error.
The plaintiffs in error, as administrators of the estate of Mrs. M. F. Puckett, made application to the ordinary for an order granting them leave to sell the land of their intestate, when Mrs. Daisy Puckett Wilson filed her petition for injunction against such application on the ground that she was entitled to the whole of the estate by reason of the facts alleged in her petition and for other relief. The substantial allegations of the petition are as follows: The petitioner is the daughter of James Gafney and his wife Katie. Shortly after her birth her father abandoned his family and removed to Texas, where he died many years ago. In December, 882, when she was an infant of about three months of age, she was brought to the home of Mrs. M. F. Puckett by her maternal grandmother and turned over to the care and custody of Mrs. Puckett under an agreement by her mother and grandmother that Mrs. Puckett was to have the sole custody and service and company of petitioner during her minority, in consideration of Mrs. Puckett's agreement and promise to take petitioner and keep her as her own child and to adopt her as such, with all the rights of a child related to her as such by blood. In pursuance of this contract, Mrs. Puckett took petitioner into her home, gave her name to her, and always treated her as a child; and the petitioner knew no other mother or home, and only since the death of Mrs. Puckett did she discover who her natural mother was. At the time petitioner was received into Mrs. Puckett's home, Mrs. Puckett was a widow with one child, a son, who never married, and who died before his mother. Petitioner remained with Mrs. Puckett until she was 25 years of age, when she married, and during this time she gave to Mrs. Puckett her love and constant attention as a child, assisting her in all household work, and rendering such personal service as only a dutiful child can render a mother. Mrs. Puckett was old and infirm and required much personal attention; she was peculiar in her temperament, lived largely the life of a recluse, had no near relatives to visit her and very few friends; and petitioner devoted her life to cheering and comforting and waiting upon her foster mother. Up to Mrs. Puckett's death petitioner always considered herself as her child, and was always treated by Mrs. Puckett as such. Mrs. Puckett told petitioner that she was adopted by her as a child, and petitioner believed this, and on the faith of it rendered the service and bestowed upon her the love and affection of a child. After marriage she made frequent visits to her foster mother. Mrs. Puckett was sick on several occasions and sent for her, and she always responded to her calls on such occasions and waited on her during her illness.
Mrs Puckett died on July 20, 1912, leaving no children; and her nearest relatives are two brothers and two sisters, all of the half blood. Petitioner is unable to say whether Mrs. Puckett ever took formal steps to adopt her as a child, but she has reason to believe that she did so, and that the papers have been misplaced in the office of the clerk of the superior court, and bases such belief on the oft-repeated declaration of Mrs. Puckett to petitioner and others that she had adopted petitioner as a child. When petitioner was about a year old her mother desired to take her back, and Mrs. Puckett refused to surrender petitioner to her mother. Mrs. Puckett told her mother that she had legally adopted petitioner as a child and caused her lawyer to state to her mother that petitioner had been legally adopted, and that her mother had no legal right to the custody of petitioner; and petitioner's mother, believing this statement to be true, relinquished all efforts to recover possession of petitioner. Mrs. Puckett owned at her death considerable personal property and two houses and lots in the city of Gainesville, in one of which petitioner has been residing since Mrs. Puckett's death. Mrs. Puckett left no debts, and her personal property is more than sufficient to pay the expenses of her last illness and burial. The defendants, as administrators, have applied for leave to sell the land of their intestate, and the petitioner cannot make any legal objection to the granting of the order for leave to sell, except in a court of equity. The administrators refuse to recognize petitioner as having any interest in the estate of their intestate, but claim that they and their sisters are her sole heirs at law and entitled to the whole of the estate; and the defendants have taken possession of the personal property of considerable value. The prayers are that petitioner be decreed to be entitled to all of the estate of Mrs. Puckett; that the administrators account for what assets may have come into their hands; that they be enjoined from paying any money to any person claiming to be a distributee of the estate, from interfering with her possession of the lot she is occupying, and from procuring an order to sell the realty of the estate; that the letters of administration be abated and a receiver be appointed; and for general relief. The defendants showed cause against the grant of an injunction and the appointment of a receiver by demurrer and answer. On the interlocutory hearing, the court heard evidence and granted the prayers for injunction and receiver.
1. A child may be adopted on application to the superior court and, after judgment of adoption, the relation between the person asking for the adoption and the adopted child shall be, as to their legal rights and liabilities, the relation of parent and child. The adopted child inherits from the adopting parent, but the latter does not inherit from the former. Civil Code, § 3016. There was no evidence on the interlocutory hearing before the judge that Mrs. Puckett ever applied for or obtained a judgment adopting Mrs. Wilson as her child, though several neighbors testified that she declared that she had done so. Whatever right, therefore, the petitioner may have in Mrs. Puckett's estate depends, not upon her status as a legally adopted child, but upon equities growing out of the agreement of Mrs. Puckett to adopt as a child, and the action taken thereunder by the parties thereto and the petitioner. The authorities very generally establish the proposition that a parol obligation by a person to adopt the child of another as his own, accompanied by a virtual, though not a statutory adoption, and acted upon by both parties during the obligor's life, may be enforced, upon the death of the obligor, by adjudging the child entitled as a child to the property of the obligor who dies without disposing of his property...
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