Heien v. Crabtree
1963 Tex. LEXIS 622, 369 S.W.2d 28, 6 Tex. Sup. Ct. J. 482 (1963)
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Rule of Law:
The doctrine of equitable adoption, or adoption by estoppel, creates inheritance rights for the equitably adopted child from the adoptive parents, but it does not create reciprocal inheritance rights for the adoptive parents or their kin from the child's estate.
Facts:
- Around 1886, R. F. Frei's biological mother gave him as a young child to Frank and Rosa Frei.
- The transfer was based on an agreement that Frank and Rosa Frei would legally adopt R. F. Frei.
- Frank and Rosa Frei gave R. F. Frei their surname and raised him for approximately twenty years in a relationship consistent with that of a parent and child.
- Despite the agreement and the parent-child relationship, Frank and Rosa Frei never completed a statutory adoption of R. F. Frei.
- Frank and Rosa Frei predeceased R. F. Frei.
- R. F. Frei died intestate (without a will), unmarried, and without any biological children.
Procedural Posture:
- Petitioners, the heirs of Frank and Rosa Frei, filed suit in the county court of Sherman County to establish their rights to the estate of R. F. Frei.
- The county court, as the court of first instance, denied the relief sought by Petitioners.
- Petitioners appealed the county court's decision to the district court.
- In the district court, Respondents (representing R. F. Frei's estate) filed a motion for summary judgment, which the court granted.
- Petitioners (as appellants) appealed the summary judgment to the Court of Civil Appeals (an intermediate appellate court), which affirmed the district court's ruling in favor of Respondents (as appellees).
- Petitioners then appealed to the Supreme Court of Texas, the state's highest court.
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Issue:
Does the doctrine of equitable adoption, or adoption by estoppel, create a full legal parent-child status that allows the adoptive parents' heirs to inherit from the equitably adopted child's intestate estate?
Opinions:
Majority - Calvert, C.J.
No. The doctrine of equitable adoption does not create a full legal status of parent and child for all purposes. The doctrine is a remedy in equity, based on estoppel in pais, that functions to protect the child's right to inherit by preventing the adoptive parents or their heirs from asserting the lack of a formal, statutory adoption. Because Frank and Rosa Frei breached their agreement to adopt through neglect or design, neither they nor their heirs can invoke equity to benefit from that breach. Estoppel cannot be asserted by the party whose conduct created the situation, and there was no promise or conduct by R. F. Frei upon which to base an estoppel against his estate.
Dissenting - Greenhill, J.
Yes. The Texas Probate Code statutorily created a reciprocal inheritance relationship. Section 3(b) of the Code explicitly defines a 'child' to include a child adopted 'by acts of estoppel.' Section 40 of the Code then states that for purposes of inheritance, adoptive parents and their kin shall inherit from and through an 'adopted child.' By reading these two sections together, the plain language of the statute mandates that inheritance is a two-way street for children adopted by estoppel, just as it is for statutorily adopted children. The majority's refusal to apply the statute's plain meaning ignores legislative intent and results in the child's property escheating to the state.
Analysis:
This decision solidifies the nature of equitable adoption in Texas as a one-way equitable remedy rather than the creation of a full legal status equivalent to statutory adoption. It establishes that the doctrine's foundation is estoppel, which serves as a shield to protect the child from the adoptive parents' failure to perform their promise, not as a sword for the parents (or their heirs) to claim a benefit from their own breach. The court narrowly interprets the Texas Probate Code's reference to adoption 'by acts of estoppel' as a mere codification of this existing, limited, one-way case law, thereby preventing the expansion of the doctrine to allow for reciprocal inheritance.
