## Facts

- Roberta W. Seaman died intestate owning an estate of about $1 million.
- Roberta’s half-brother, Lloyd Dudley Seaman (“Dudley”), was the son of Roberta’s father by a prior marriage.
- After his parents’ divorce, Dudley was adopted by his mother’s second husband.
- Dudley predeceased Roberta and left a daughter, Charlotte L. Gaynor.
- If Dudley’s adoption did not affect the natural-family line, Charlotte (Roberta’s half-niece) would take ahead of Roberta’s first cousins under New York intestacy rules, including the rule that half-blood relatives are treated as whole blood.
- The Surrogate’s Court held that Dudley’s adoption severed inheritance through the natural family so that Charlotte could not inherit from Roberta; the first cousins would take instead.

## Issues

1. Whether Domestic Relations Law § 117 permits the issue of an adopted-out child to inherit by intestacy from the adoptee’s natural family when § 117(1)(e) preserves the adoptee’s own right to inherit from the natural family.
2. Whether, absent express statutory language extending preserved rights to “issue,” adoption bars the issue from inheriting through the natural-family line under EPTL 4-1.1.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division’s order affirming the Surrogate’s decree.
- The court held that when DRL § 117(1)(e) preserves an adopted-out child’s right to inherit from the natural family, that preserved right extends to the adoptee’s issue.
- Charlotte L. Gaynor was a distributee entitled to inherit Roberta’s estate under EPTL 4-1.1.

## Legal Principles

- DRL § 117 generally addresses how adoption affects inheritance relationships between adoptees and natural and adoptive families.
- Where DRL § 117(1)(e) preserves an adoptee’s inheritance connection to the natural family, ordinary intestacy rules apply to that connection, including representation through the adoptee’s issue under EPTL 4-1.1, unless the statute clearly provides otherwise.
- Courts should not infer, from statutory silence, that the Legislature created a special rule eliminating representation for the issue of adoptees who retain natural-family inheritance rights.
- Intestacy distribution prioritizes closer relatives in degree, and half-blood relatives are treated as whole blood under EPTL 4-1.1.

## Conclusion

The court held that a statutory preservation of an adopted-out child’s right to inherit from the natural family carries the ordinary incidents of intestacy, including inheritance by the adoptee’s issue, making the decedent’s half-niece the proper distributee rather than more remote cousins.


In re Estate of Seaman, 78 N.Y.2d 451, 583 N.E.2d 294, 576 N.Y.S.2d 838 (1991)