Estate of Pittman

Marjorie Mize LeGaye, Launer, Chaffee, Ward & Orman, Robert E. Ward, L. Richard Rawls, Alvin W. Beardsley, Howser, Gertner & Brown and David L. Sanner for Objectors and Appellants.

No appearance for Petitioner and Respondent.

Edward H. Stone for Claimants and Respondents.

OPINION

TAMURA, J.

This appeal involves the right of adult adoptees to take under a testamentary class gift made under a will executed in 1914 to the "child" or "children" of the adopting parents.

Carolina B. Pittman (decedent, testatrix) died in 1915 leaving a will executed in 1914 which was probated in the Superior Court of Orange County. The decree of final distribution determined that decedent left the following heirs:

"R.M. Pittman, her surviving husband, aged about forty-seven years; Frederick B. Tuffree, son, aged about forty-seven years; Juanita C. Yorba, daughter, aged about forty-six years; John C. Tuffree, son, aged about thirty-nine years; Henry D. Tuffree, son, aged about thirty-six years; Marquita R. O'Brien, daughter, aged about thirty-three years; Samuel James Tuffree, son, aged about twenty-six years; Nellie A. Lloyd, daughter, aged about forty-one years; and Carolina Jackmon Pittman, a…