Morse

Eliot Beddoe was the income beneficiary of a testamentary trust under a will executed by his mother, Madeleine L. Moulton, on July 24, 1923. After Eliot’s death in 1973, the trustee petitioned the probate court for instructions concerning the distribution of the trust corpus. The court ordered the trust property distributed to Pamela Beddoe as the surviving “lawful issue” of Eliot, who had adopted her as an adult in 1969.

The alternate remaindermen under the will, entitled to take the property in the event Eliot died leaving no widow and no surviving “lawful issue,” are Beatrice B. Morse, Japsay Lockett Sears, Sally Cudlip, Marion Franzen, Howard Potter and Stephen Potter (respectively the daughter, the nephew, and the issue of stepsons of the testatrix). They contend Pamela was not “lawful issue” as that term was used in the will.

Few facts are in dispute. Mrs. Moulton’s will was drawn by a competent, duly licensed, California attorney. When the will was executed in 1923, there was no statutory procedure in California for the adoption of an adult. However, adult adoptions were allowed in at least 13 other states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and…