## Facts

- Hattie O’Neal, born in 1949, was raised by her mother until her mother died in 1957; her biological father never legitimated or supported her.
- O’Neal lived with a maternal aunt in New York for several years, then was taken to Savannah, Georgia, and placed with a caretaker who later could not continue caring for her.
- O’Neal was then taken to Estelle Page (sister of O’Neal’s biological father), who arranged for Roswell Cook and his wife to take O’Neal into their home.
- Cook never completed a statutory adoption, but raised O’Neal, supported her education, treated her as his daughter, and maintained that relationship until her marriage in 1975.
- Cook died intestate in 1991; the estate administrator refused to recognize O’Neal as an heir.
- O’Neal filed an equitable action seeking a declaration of virtual adoption to inherit as if she had been formally adopted.

## Issues

1. Whether virtual adoption can be found without a contract to adopt made by a person legally competent to consent to or contract for the child’s adoption.
2. Whether a paternal aunt who provided familial care, without court-appointed custodial or guardianship authority, could bind the child through a contract to adopt.
3. Whether later acquiescence by family members could ratify an otherwise unauthorized adoption contract for purposes of virtual adoption.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Georgia affirmed the trial court’s grant of judgment notwithstanding the verdict for the estate administrator.
- The court held that the evidence did not establish a valid contract to adopt because the alleged contracting adult lacked legal authority to contract for the child’s adoption.
- The court rejected ratification theories where no parent or court-appointed guardian executed or later formally adopted a contract to adopt.
- O’Neal was not recognized as virtually adopted and therefore did not inherit from Cook’s intestate estate.

## Legal Principles

- Virtual adoption is an equitable doctrine used to enforce an unperformed agreement to complete a statutory adoption for inheritance purposes, but it requires proof of a valid contract to adopt.
- A contract to adopt must be made between parties competent to contract for the disposition of the child; de facto or familial caretaking alone does not supply that competence.
- Legal authority over a child for adoption purposes is distinct from informal custody; authority to consent to adoption is generally retained by a parent or court-appointed guardian, not by a relative acting without formal legal appointment.
- Equitable doctrines such as ratification cannot substitute for the threshold requirement that the adoption contract originate from a legally authorized person.

## Conclusion

Because no legally competent adult entered a contract to adopt O’Neal, Georgia’s requirements for virtual adoption were not met, and the administrator’s judgment notwithstanding the verdict was properly affirmed, barring O’Neal from inheriting as Cook’s child.


O’Neal v. Wilkes, 263 Ga. 850, 439 S.E.2d 490 (Ga. 1994)