## Facts

- A testatrix executed a will in 1932 creating a testamentary trust, with income payable in the trustees’ discretion to her husband and three sons for their lives.
- The trust was to terminate at the death of the last surviving life beneficiary, with the corpus then distributed “to my then surviving heirs, according to the laws of descent and distribution then in force in Kentucky,” and, if none, to a named church.
- The testatrix died in 1932; her husband died in 1935.
- One son died without issue; another son died leaving two natural children (the appellants).
- The third son married in 1934 and had no natural children.
- In 1959, shortly before his death, the third son adopted his adult wife as his child under Kentucky’s adoption statute.
- The third son died in 1963 as the last surviving life beneficiary, terminating the trust.
- The trustee sought a judicial construction of whether the adopted adult wife fell within the class “my then surviving heirs” for distribution of the remainder.

## Issues

1. Whether an adult adoptee—specifically, an adopted spouse—qualified as a “then surviving heir” of the testatrix under a pre-existing will directing distribution by Kentucky intestacy law at the trust’s termination.
2. Whether an adult adoption undertaken to secure a share of a pre-existing testamentary remainder should be given effect when it would alter the testator’s intended class of takers.

## Decision

- The appellate court reversed the trial court.
- The court held that the adopted adult wife was not an “heir” of the testatrix for purposes of the testamentary class gift.
- The court refused to give effect to an adult adoption used to bring the adoptee within a pre-existing testamentary disposition when doing so would defeat the testatrix’s intent.
- The remainder of the trust was to be distributed without including the adopted adult wife in the class of “then surviving heirs.”

## Legal Principles

- A will is construed to carry out the testator’s intent; class-gift terms such as “heirs” are interpreted in light of that intent and the circumstances reasonably contemplated when the instrument was executed.
- Although Kentucky law permitted adult adoption with the same general legal effect as adoption of a minor, that statutory effect was not applied to expand beneficiaries under a previously executed third-party will or trust where the adoption was used strategically to redirect the donor’s property.
- A person may inherit from an adoptive parent by virtue of adoption, but inheriting through an adoptive parent from a third party depends on construction of the third party’s instrument and whether inclusion of the adoptee fits the donor’s intended class.
- Courts may deny effect to an adult adoption that operates as a device to reconfigure a pre-existing testamentary class in a manner inconsistent with the donor’s intended estate plan.

## Conclusion

The court held that an adult adoption of a spouse, undertaken after execution of a will and aimed at capturing a share of a testamentary remainder, did not make the adoptee an “heir” within the meaning of the testatrix’s class gift where inclusion would defeat the testatrix’s intended distribution.


Minary v. Citizens Fidelity Bank & Tr. Co., 419 S.W.2d 340 (Ky. Ct. App. 1967)