Gray v. Morgan, 41094
| Decision Date | 23 March 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 41094,41094 |
| Citation | 110 So.2d 346,236 Miss. 245 |
| Parties | Myrtie GRAY and Isaiah Leitaker v. Sallie Shelton MORGAN, Deceased, J. G. Sherard, Administrator. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
King & King, Jackson, for appellants.
Brunini, Everett, Grantham & Quinn, Vicksburg, for appellee.
The real parties in interest to this litigation are the appellants Myrtle Gray and Isaiah Leitaker, sister and brother, and Elena Williams Davenport, the adopted child of John Coffee and his wife Mamie L. Coffee, now deceased.
The subject matter of the litigation is the property of which Sallie Shelton Morgan, the sister of Mamie L. Coffee, died seized and possessed on February 28, 1958, in Warren County, Mississippi.
John Coffee and his wife, Mamie L. Coffee, obtained from the Chancery Court of Warren County on November 15, 1922, a decree for the adoption of Alene Williams and the change of her name to Elena Williams Coffee, upon their petition in that behalf. In their petition the adoptive parents proposed 'to make said minor, when adopted, their heir at law and to care for, rear, educate, support and maintain said minor the same as if she were their natural child; * * *'. The decree granted the prayer of the petition, thereby adjudicating the rights, duties and responsibilities of the adoptive parents and the adopted child, as provided for under Section 1269, Code of 1942, which had been brought forward, with slight amendments not material here, from the Code of 1871. This statute will be hereinafter referred to as the old adoption law. But said statute was later repealed by Chapter 34 of the Extraordinary Session of the Legislature of 1955 (Sections 1269-01 to 1269-13, inclusive, Code of 1942 Rec., in which Section 1269 states: Repealed by Laws 1955 Ex. ch. 34, 'but continued in effect as to all proceedings filed prior to the effective date of the repealing act', which was July 1, 1955.)
Section 1269-06, Code of 1942 Rec., provides among other things that: 'The final decree shall adjudicate, in addition to such other provisions as may be found by the court to be proper for the protection of the interests of the child, and its effect, unless otherwise specifically provided, shall be that (a) the child shall inherit from and through the adopting parents and shall likewise inherit from the other children of the adopting parents to the same extent and under the same conditions as provided for the inheritance between brothers and sisters of the full blood by the laws of descent and distribution of the State of Mississippi, and that the adopting parents and their other children shall inherit from the child, just as if such child had been born to the adopting parents in lawful wedlock; (b) the child and the adopting parents and adoptive kindred are vested with all of the rights, powers, duties and obligations, respectively, as if such child had been born to the adopting parents in lawful wedlock, including all rights existing by virtue of section 1453 of the Code of 1942; provided, however, that inheritance by or from the adopted child shall be governed by sub-section (a) above; * * *.' The foregoing provision is of course a part of the new adoption statute of 1955.
Section 1269-10 thereof, entitled 'saving clause', provides: 'The provisions of this act shall not affect nor apply to any adoption proceeding filed prior to the effective date hereof, except as provided in section 7 above, provided however, the petitioner in such pending proceedings may elect to proceed under the provisions of this act by filing an amended petition or an amended bill for adoption expressly electing to be bound by the provisions hereof.'
Section 1269-12, entitled 'repealing clause', reads as follows: 'Section 1269 of the Mississippi Code of 1942 is hereby repealed; provided however, that the provisions of said section shall notwithstanding such repeal be applicable to and shall govern and determine the courts in the disposition of all adoption proceedings filed prior to the effective date of this act; and all other laws, to the extent that such other laws are in conflict with the provisions of this act, are hereby repealed.'
The record discloses that Mamie L. Coffee died during the year 1947, and that John Coffee predeceased her; that they had no natural children of their own; and that Mamie L. Coffee died testate after having executed a last will and testament which devised and bequeathed the furniture in the front room of her house to the daughter of her deceased husband (John Coffee) and the remainder of her property, both real and personal, to her sister, who was at the time of her death on February 28, 1959, Sallie Shelton Morgan, who died intestate. The intestate was an elderly woman who had operated a store in the City of Vicksburg in Warren County for many years and until only a few years prior to her death. She evidently left some property of material value.
We deem it unnecessary to discuss the will of Mamie L. Coffee, which was not contested, other than to say that she then had the legal right to have disinherited a natural child had she had one and had seen fit to do so. At any rate, we do not base our decision herein upon the fact that she disinherited the adopted child.
The new adoption statute of 1955 greatly enlarges the rights of adoptive parents and an...
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Fisher v. Drankus, 2015–CA–01045–SCT
...of no other construction or meaning, and there is a plain declaration in the act that it is." Id. at 931 ; see also Gray v. Morgan , 236 Miss. 245, 110 So.2d 346 (1959) ("where the intention of the legislature to make the statute retroactive is not stated in express terms, or clearly, expli......
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...(Okl.1965); In Re Cilley, 400 Pa. 567, 163 A.2d 302 (1960); May v. Curry, 385 S.W.2d 603 (Tex.Civ.App.1965). Contra, Gray v. Morgan, 236 Miss. 245, 110 So.2d 346 (1959) (the statute provided for readoption to gain benefit of the new enactment); In Re Avery, 176 N.J.Super. 469, 423 A.2d 994 ......