In re the Final Accounting of Bankers Trust Co.

Chief Judge Fuld.

In this proceeding to settle a trustee’s account, the question posed is whether former section 114 of the Domestic Relations Law, in effect when the trust was created, compels the adopted children of the settlor’s deceased son to relinquish their father’s share of the trust corpus in favor of the settlor’s natural child and grandchildren.

James and Marian Snowden were married in 1909 and had three children, a son and two daughters. In 1922 they separated and executed a combined separation and trust agreement pursuant to which Mr. Snowden transferred assets yrorth $400,000 to a…