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Keywords

statuteappealhearingmotionadoptionprobationlegislative intentrespondentappellant

appealmotionadoptionappellant

Related Cases

Matter of Adoption of Robert Paul P., 63 N.Y.2d 233, 471 N.E.2d 424, 481 N.Y.S.2d 652, 42 A.L.R.4th 765, 53 USLW 2224

Facts

The appellants, two adult males who have lived together for over 25 years, sought to formalize their relationship through adoption. The older male, aged 57 at the time of the petition, aimed to adopt the younger male, aged 50, for social, financial, and emotional reasons. After a hearing and a favorable probation investigation, the Family Court denied the petition, asserting that the relationship lacked the necessary parent-child dynamics and was instead an attempt to use adoption as a substitute for marriage.

The two share a homosexual relationship and desire an adoption for social, financial and emotional reasons.

Issue

Whether it was error for the Family Court to deny the petition of a 57-year-old male to adopt a 50-year-old male with whom he shares a homosexual relationship.

We are asked to decide whether it was error for Family Court, 117 Misc.2d 279, 458 N.Y.S.2d 178 to deny the petition of a 57-year-old male to adopt a 50-year-old male with whom he shares a homosexual relationship.

Rule

Adoption in New York is intended to establish a legal parent-child relationship, which cannot be achieved through the adoption of an adult in a nonfilial relationship, regardless of the nature of that relationship.

It is plainly not a quasi-matrimonial vehicle to provide nonmarried partners with a legal imprimatur for their sexual relationship, be it heterosexual or homosexual.

Analysis

The court analyzed the adoption statute and determined that it is designed to create a legal parent-child relationship, which the appellants' relationship did not embody. The court emphasized that adoption should not be used as a means to legitimize a nonmarital sexual relationship, whether homosexual or heterosexual, and that the legislative intent behind adoption laws must be strictly adhered to.

Here, where the appellants are living together in a homosexual relationship and where no incidents of a parent-child relationship are evidenced or even remotely within the parties' intentions, no fair interpretation of our adoption laws can permit a granting of the petition.

Conclusion

The Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the Appellate Division, concluding that the adoption petition was properly denied as it did not meet the statutory requirements for establishing a parent-child relationship.

Accordingly, the order of the Appellate Division should be affirmed, with costs.

Who won?

The prevailing party was the respondents, as the court upheld the denial of the adoption petition, reasoning that the relationship between the parties did not constitute a parent-child relationship as required by law.

The Appellate Division, 97 A.D.2d 991, 469 N.Y.S.2d 833, unanimously affirmed, without opinion, and granted leave to appeal to this court.

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