Kuchenig v. California Company

• Decision Date: 07 July 1969
• Docket Number: No. 25640.,25640.
• Citation: 410 F.2d 222
• Parties: Fred KUCHENIG, Appellant, v. The CALIFORNIA COMPANY, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fifth Circuit

410 F.2d 222 (1969)

Fred KUCHENIG, Appellant, v. The CALIFORNIA COMPANY, Appellee.

No. 25640.

United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

April 11, 1969.

Rehearing and Rehearing Denied July 7, 1969.

Solomon S. Goldman, Hugues J. de la Vergne III, Louis de la Vergne, New Orleans, La., for appellant.

Lawrence K. Benson, John C. Christian, New Orleans, La., Edward M. Carmouche, Lake Charles, La., for appellee; Milling, Saal, Saunders, Benson & Woodward, New Orleans, La., of counsel.

Before WISDOM, THORNBERRY, and GOLDBERG, Circuit Judges.

Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied July 7, 1969.

WISDOM, Circuit Judge:

This case, a sequel, perhaps not the last, to Kuchenig v. California Co., 5 Cir. 1965, 350 F.2d 551, cert. denied, 382 U.S. 985, 86 S.Ct. 561, 15 L.Ed.2d 473,¹ presents two questions. Under Missouri law, what effect should be given to a so-called "equitable" adoption, that is, a de facto adoption that has almost all, but not all, of the legal consequences of an adoption in strict compliance with the Missouri adoption statute? Under Louisiana law, what effect should be given in this case to the adoptee's claim to land in Louisiana allegedly owned by his adoptive parents?

Missouri courts recognize so-called "equitable" adoptions for purposes of an adoptee's inheriting from his adoptive parents. If the land that is the subject of this suit had been located in Missouri, Fred Kuchenig would have received it by descent, just as if he had been born to Martin and Maria Kuchenig, his adoptive parents. We hold, therefore, that Louisiana courts would recognize Fred Kuchenig as entitled to any interest in the Louisiana land that would accrue to a "lawfully adopted" person under Louisiana law.

* * * In 1912 Martin Kuchenig and his wife, Maria Ragas Kuchenig, of St. Louis, Missouri, took into their home an infant, two months old. They called him Fred Kuchenig and raised him as their son. School and church records confirm that he always bore the name Fred Kuchenig. Not until World War II, upon his employer's requiring a birth certificate, did he learn that he had been adopted. On July 31, 1912, the Kuchenigs had executed a "Deed of Adoption", a copy of which is in the record. In terms, the deed recited that his new parents adopted him "as fully as they are by law empowered to do". The deed admittedly was never recorded, as required by Missouri law. Martin Kuchenig died August 1, 1948, and his wife died September 16, 1957, leaving Fred Kuchenig as their only heir.

In 1961 Kuchenig filed a complaint against the California Company (now Chevron Oil Company) (1) for damages for trespass, (2) for an accounting for severed minerals, and (3) for a judgment removing as a cloud on his title an oil lease from the State of Louisiana to the California Company. The land is a submerged area in Breton Sound in Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana. Kuchenig does not allege that he is in possession and admits that he has "never seen the property". The action is based upon his alleged ownership through inheritance from Martin Kuchenig. While this suit was pending, Fred Kuchenig obtained an ex-parte Judgment, Order, and Decree of the Circuit Court of St. Louis, Missouri, Equity Division, declaring him to be "the adopted son of Martin and Maria Kuchenig". California does not collaterally attack this decree.

Kuchenig takes full advantage of the equity decree but also argues that it neither adds to nor subtracts from his right to prove his adoptive parents' executed contract to adopt him. He contends that under Missouri law he had all the rights a legally adopted child has to inherit from adoptive parents. California contends that Kuchenig was not "lawfully adopted" within the meaning of Article 4, § 16 of the Louisiana Constitution. The district court agreed with the defendants,² and granted summary judgment in favor of California.

I.

In this Erie-bound case, Missouri, as the domiciliary state, controls the law as to Kuchenig's status and Louisiana controls the law as to the devolution of the land. We look to the forum state's choice-of-law rule in resolving which state law applies. Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Manufacturing Co., 1941, 313 U.S. 487, 61 S.Ct. 1020, 85 L.Ed. 1477.

Succession to immovable (real) property is determined by the law of the situs of the land. Sevier v. Douglass, 1892, 44 La.Ann. 605, 10 So. 804; Succession of Simms, 1965, La.App. 4 Cir., 175 So.2d 113, aff'd, 250 La. 177, 195 So.2d 114; Alexander v. Gray, 1938, La. App. 4 Cir., 181 So. 639; Akin v. Louisiana National Bank, 5 Cir. 1963, 322 F.2d 749; A.L.I. Restatement, Conflicts § 247 (1934); Annot., 87 A.L.R.2d 1240 (1965).

Article 4, § 16 of the Louisiana Constitution of 1921, in effect at the time of Martin Kuchenig's death, provided: " * * * children lawfully adopted shall have the same rights in the successions of the persons adopting them, as children who are forced heirs." (Emphasis added.) Article 214 of the Louisiana Civil Code carries out the constitutional mandate by declaring, "The adopted person is considered for all purposes as the legitimate child and forced heir of the adoptive parent or parents * * *."

Louisiana follows the general rule that the status of an adoptee will be recognized by the courts of the state of the situs of the land for purposes of succession under the law of the situs, unless the adoption violates public policy of the state. Welch v. Jacobsmeyer, 216 La. 333, 43 So.2d 678 (1949); Succession of Caldwell, 114 La. 195, 38 So. 140 (1905); Alexander v. Gray, 181 So. 689 (La.App.1938); Akin v. Louisiana National Bank, 5 Cir. 1963, 322 F.2d 749; A.L.I. Restatement, Conflicts § 143 (1934);³ Annot., 87 A.L.R.2d 1240 (1963); Lunn, The Rights of One Legitimated or Adopted in Another State in a Louisiana Succession, 10 La.L.Rev. 390 (1950).

II.

California contends that Kuchenig never acquired the status of a child "lawfully adopted". This contention is based on the assumption that "status" means, as defined in Black's Law Dictionary (3d Ed.): "The legal relation of individual to rest of the community." Here, so the argument runs, "Missouri distinguishes between the legal status which vests in a child lawfully adopted in compliance with statute as opposed to the benefits of equitable estoppel afforded a child by a Chancellor's decree in equity". The argument is close to a play on words if, for purposes of inheritance from his adoptive parents, an adoptee recognized as equitably adopted stands in the same position as one adopted in strict compliance with the Missouri adoption statute. We are not concerned with the fact that Kuchenig might not inherit from collaterals nor they from him. We are concerned with whether Missouri courts would recognize Fred Kuchenig as the adopted child of Martin and Maria Kuchenig and as such entitled to inherit not just the beneficial title but the full fee, to the same extent as if the deed of adoption had been recorded.

The statute in effect at the time of Fred Kuchenig's adoption provided for adoption by deed. Mo.Laws § 1671, ch. 20, art. 1, R.S.1909.⁴ There is reason to think that it was not unusual in Missouri for adoptive parents to withhold recordation deeds to conceal the fact of adoption from the adoptee or from the over-curious; the adoptee could establish his right to inheritance with and without the deed. See Holloway v. Jones, 1922, Mo., 246 S.W. 587. It is important to note that under the 1909 statute a child legally adopted by a properly executed and recorded deed could inherit property from the adoptive parents, but not from collateral relatives of the adoptive parents; nor could collaterals inherit from the adoptee. Hockaday v. Lynn, 1906, 200 Mo. 456, 472, 98 S.W. 585, 588, 8 L.R.A.,N.S., 117; McIntyre v. Hardestey, 1941, 347 Mo. 805, 149 S.W.2d 334; Weber v. Griffiths, 1941, 349 Mo. 145, 159 S.W.2d 670. Thus before 1917, adoptions ran only in favor of the adopted child. In 1917 the legislature enacted a statute providing for adoption by decree of the juvenile court. Mo.Rev. Stat.Ann. § 453.010 (1952). The effect of the 1917 statute differed from that of its predecessor in that a child adopted under it is treated for all purposes, including inheritance, as a legitimate child of his adoptive parents. Mo.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 453.090 (1952); Robertson v. Cornett, 1949, 359 Mo. 1156, 225 S.W.2d 780; St. Louis Union Trust Co. v. Hill, 1934, 336 Mo. 17, 76 S.W.2d 685. A child, therefore, adopted under the 1917 statute was given greater inheritance rights relative to collaterals than a child lawfully adopted under the 1909 statute. Later, to cure this disparity, the Missouri legislature amended the law to provide that a child adopted by deed before 1917 would be treated for all purposes as a child adopted after 1917. Mo.Rev.Stat. Ann. § 453.150 (1952). See Limbaugh, The Adoption of Children in Missouri, 2 Missouri L.Rev. 300 (1937).

Missouri courts have consistently held that statutes requiring adoption through ceremonies, deed or court proceeding, are not exclusive. "Even when such statutes prevail, there may be contracts to adopt between parties, and such contracts will be enforced as to property rights by Courts of equity upon death of the adopter, even though they are not in writing."⁵ Limbaugh, The Adoption of Children in Missouri, 2 Missouri L. Rec. 300, 303 (1937). In Lindsley v. Patterson, Mo.1915, 177 S.W. 826, L.R.A.1915F., 680, where the adoptive parent had not executed a deed of adoption, the court commented on the 1909 statute as follows:

"This statute only authorizes the husband and wife to adopt a child or children in the manner and form therein stated, but it does not prevent them or either of them from adopting a child or children in any other lawful manner. Mrs. Patterson, as previously shown, had entered into an oral contract of adoption, during her marriage to Mr. Patterson all of which was known to him, and by his acquiescence and conduct he must have ratified the

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