Hyman v. Glover

I cannot join the majority in this opinion. Ancient notions of primogeniture and estates tail and the Statute de Donis have long since been abandoned in this Commonwealth. See Orndoff v. Turman, 29 Va. (2 Leigh) 200 (1830). Left surviving, however, was the case-law rule that a testator is presumed to have employed such words as “issue” to exclude “persons who qualify as such only by or through adoption”. Langhorne v. Langhorne, 212 Va. 577, 578, 186 S.E.2d 50, 51 (1972). That presumption was rooted in medieval England’s obsession with bloodlines in the devolution of property. See generally T.…