Oklahoma Court Case: Estate of Moore

IN THE MATTER of the ESTATE of FRANCIS EUGENIA MOORE, deceased. VIVIAN S. CROW and the blood heirs of Decedent, Francis Eugenia Moore, Appellants, vs. SYLVIA R. FORE, Personal Representative of the Estate of Francis Eugenia Moore, Appellee. 

COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OF OKLAHOMA, DIVISION THREE 

2001 OK CIV APP 76; 25 P.3d 305; 72 O.B.A.J. 2170 

April 5, 2001, Filed 

Certiorari to Court of Appeals Denied May 22, 2001. 
APPEAL FROM THE DISTRICT COURT OF PAYNE COUNTY, OKLAHOMA. HONORABLE CHARLES A. MEYERS, JUDGE. 

REVERSED AND REMANDED. 

COUNSEL:
Barbara K. Bado, John Terry Bado, BADO & BADO, Edmond, Oklahoma, For Appellants.

Bebe Bridges, Gregory L. Johnson, Ardmore, Oklahoma, For Appellee. 

JUDGES:
Opinion by Kenneth L. Buettner, Presiding Judge. GARRETT, J., concurs. HANSEN, C.J., concurring. 

BUETTNER, P.J.
Two children were adopted by George and Sylvia Moore. The couple divorced. After Sylvia Moore's marriage to Ronald Fore, George Moore relinquished his parental rights over the two children, paving the way for Fore's adoption of them. George Moore later died, leaving his estate to his mother, Francis Eugenia Moore. Francis Eugenia Moore subsequently died intestate. The trial court awarded her estate to the two children who had been adopted by George Moore and later adopted by Fore. We hold that children may inherit through intestate succession through their natural parents and their adoptive parents, but that when there are successive adoptions, the last adoption precludes rights of inheritance through intestate succession through previous adoptive parents.
The facts in this case were stipulated:

1. Sylvia R. Fore is the adoptive mother of Wesley Jerome Fore, born January 26, 1965, and Christopher Merrell Fore, born September 23, 1965.

2. Sylvia R. Fore married George Clifford Moore June 16, 1962.

3. George Clifford Moore is the son of the Decedent, Francis Eugenia Moore and Clifford W. Moore, also deceased.

4. George Clifford Moore and Sylvia R. Fore adopted Christopher Fore and Wesley Fore shortly after the births of said children in adoption proceedings in Orleans Parish, Louisiana.

5. Sylvia R. Fore and George Clifford Moore were divorced by Decree of Divorce entered on January 31, 1967 by the District Court of Carter County, Oklahoma, in Case No. D-4344.

6. Sylvia R. Fore, subsequent to her divorce from George Clifford Moore, married Ronald Wilson Fore on or about December 31, 1969.

7. On May 7, 1970, by Decree of Adoption entered by the District Court of Carter County, Oklahoma, Ronald Wilson Fore, husband of Sylvia R. Fore, adopted Christopher Fore and Wesley Fore, in Case No. A-70-18.