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The North Carolina Supreme Court recently recognized the doctrine of equitable adoption. In Lankford v. Wright, 122 N.C. App. 746, 472 S.E. 2nd 31 (1996), Reversed and Remanded as Lankford v. White, 347 N.C. 115, 489 S.E. 2d 604 (1997). The Supreme Court held that a foster child could inherit under intestacy from her foster mother. The court held that under limited circumstances equitable adoption is necessary to protect the interest of a person who was supposed to have been adopted as a child but whose adoptive parents failed to undertake the legal steps necessary to formally accomplish the adoption. Equitable adoption does not confer the incidents of formal statutory adoption; rather, it merely confers rights of inheritance upon the foster child in the event of intestacy of the foster parents. The elements necessary to establish the existence of equitable adoption are:
The required elements clearly limit the number of equitable adoption situations which will occur. The Court's holding does raise new issues when determining the proper heirs of an intestate. This may prove especially important when real property is being conveyed out of an estate or by heirs of an intestate. |