Just days before a separate panel of the Superior Court held that Pennsylvania courts may assume jurisdiction to dissolve civil unions, Judges Gantman, Bender and Panella issued a published opinion, In re Adoption of R.A.B., Jr., holding that an adult adoption consummated in July, 2012 could be annulled or revoked. 2016 Pa. Super. 295. The opinion was published on December 21, 2016.
In April 2012, 76-year-old Roland Bosee petitioned the Allegheny County Orphans’ Court to permit him to adopt his 40+ year life companion, Nino Esposito. Mr. Esposito was then 65 years old. The adoption was granted.
The stated purpose of the adoption was for these gentlemen to form a family relationship in a world where they could not marry in Pennsylvania. When that law changed in 2014, Mr. Esposito filed a petition to revoke the adoption. As one might suspect, his companion did not oppose but the Orphans’ Court dismissed the petition on the basis that there is no precedent to revoke or annul these proceedings. The Superior Court citing a 1957 Somerset County case, Adoption of Phillips, decided that adoptions may be revoked for good cause premised upon general principles of equity. 12 D&C 2d. 387, 396-97. See also Adoption of Hilton 2 D&C 2d 499 (Montgomery 1975) aff’d 369 A.2d 728 (Pa. 1977). The appellate court also noted family court precedent in both Delaware and New Jersey permitting such a proceeding where the stated goal was marriage.
The Allegheny County decision was reversed and the case remanded for the purpose of entering an order terminating the adoption.
We note that there is room for mischief here and in so doing we do not suggest that the litigants in this case having any such motive. Suppose one of the parties in a similar situation elects not to proceed with the marriage? Does the other party have the right to vacate the order vacating the adoption? The family courts have seen a marked uptick in cases where adult children are being asked to support their elderly parents? Is the revocation of an adoption a possible avenue to avoid that kind of support? Adult adoption is an area where courts need to proceed gingerly both in terms of their establishment and their revocation. Motivations are not always what they seem. Adoption was not recognized at common law and most laws in America and England have a little more than a century of precedent. These laws were created at a time when adult mortality was far higher and people were looking for a better solution to the orphan trains that carried 250,000 children to the mid-west between 1850 and 1920.