Parnelle v. Cavanaugh

Jenkins, Justice.

1. A contract by a person to adopt a child of another as his own “is not self-operating; heirship does not grow out of it; the right to take an estate as an heir at law [existing] only by operation of law,” and “the right of the child [growing] wholly out of the contract; and the remedy is to specifically enforce the contract to the extent of decreeing to the child such interest in the estate undisposed of by will as he would have taken as a [natural] child of the adopting parent.” Pair v. Pair, 147 Ga. 754, 758 (95 S. E. 295); Burgamy v. Holton, 165 Ga. 384, 391 (141 S. E.…