## Facts

- New York law permitted an adult to adopt another adult through a proceeding intended to place the adoptee “into the relation of child,” with corresponding parental rights and responsibilities.
- A 57-year-old man petitioned to adopt his 50-year-old male partner; the two had lived together for more than 25 years in a committed same-sex relationship.
- The petition stated “social, financial and emotional” reasons for adoption, including facilitating property transfer and inheritance.
- A probation investigation was favorable as to stability and mutual support, but it did not show a functional parent–child relationship.
- The Family Court denied the petition, finding the adoption was being used to obtain ends served by marriage, wills, or contracts and that the parties lacked any semblance of a parent–child relationship.
- The Appellate Division affirmed without opinion; the Court of Appeals granted leave to appeal.

## Issues

1. Whether New York’s adoption statute permits one adult to adopt another adult in the context of a longstanding intimate partnership when the record does not show a bona fide parent–child relationship and the adoption is sought primarily for social and financial objectives.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of the adoption petition.
- The court held that the adoption statute is aimed at creating a parent–child relationship, not at formalizing an adult intimate partnership or providing a substitute for marriage or estate-planning devices.
- The court agreed that the record supported the Family Court’s finding that the parties’ relationship did not resemble a parent–child relationship.

## Legal Principles

- Adoption under New York law is designed to create the legal relation of parent and child, approximating the natural parent–child relationship (“adoption imitates nature”).
- Even where adult adoption is statutorily permitted, a court may deny an adoption that is inconsistent with the statute’s purpose and is sought primarily to confer financial, social, or symbolic incidents of “child” status on an intimate partner.
- Changes to allow adoption to function as a mechanism for partner-recognition or marital-like property and inheritance consequences are matters for the legislature, not judicial expansion of the adoption statute.

## Conclusion

The court upheld denial of an adult-adoption petition because the requested adoption would have recharacterized an intimate adult partnership as a parent–child relationship to obtain inheritance and related benefits, which the adoption statute was not intended to accomplish.


In re Adoption of Robert Paul P., 471 N.E.2d 424 (N.Y. 1984)