In re White

Frankenthaler, S.

The sole issue herein is whether object-ant, decedent’s natural father, has status under section 17 of the Decedent Estate Law to contest charitable bequests in excess of one half of the estate or whether he has forfeited his rights by consenting to decedent’s adoption.

The facts have been stipulated. In 1914, when decedent was two years old, objectant and decedent’s maternal grandparents executed and duly recorded an instrument of adoption pursuant to the appropriate Missouri statutes by which decedent was adopted by such grandparents in whose custody she remained thereafter.…