136 Misc. 2d 103 - Rodriguez v. Morris’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

4 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “Equitable Adoption is a doctrine of law that is recognized in this State ( Middleworth v. Ordway, 191 N.Y. 404 , 84 N.E. 291 ). In the Middleworth case, the Court of Appeals held that absent a formal adoption, where a decedent dies intestate and prior to his demise he had entered into an agreement with a child's natural parents or with an agency or institution having the care and custody of the child ( Gavin v. Aitken, 258 N.Y. 595 , 180 N.E. 348 ; Miller v. Elliott, 266 App.Div. 428 , 42 N.Y.S.2d 569 ), wherein the decedent agreed to adopt the child and to treat that child as he would treat a natural child of his, and the natural parents or the agency or institution as well as the child perform their part of the contract, to wit, a parent-child relationship is formed and carried on with the decedent, the child may inherit the share of the decedent's intestate estate that he would have been entitled to had he been formally adopted. This doctrine does not create a legal adoption by the decedent of the child, but is merely an exercise of the court's equitable powers whereby a child is permitted to enforce the agreement to adopt made by the decedent and thereby acquire the rights in intestacy that he would have had if the decedent had complied with the said agreement. ( Matter of Mazzeo, 95 A.D.2d 91 , 466 N.Y.S.2d 759 ; Matter of Riggs, 109 Misc.2d 644 , 440 N.Y.S.2d 450 ). (Emphasis added)”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 267 N.J. Super. 88 - Matter of the Adoption of a Child by NEY