Newman v. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Supreme Court of California
926 P.2d 969 (1996)
Helen Lathrop's 1972 will placed her estate in trust, paying income to her siblings and, upon a sibling's death, to that sibling's living issue, with final distribution to the siblings' then-living children after the last sibling died. Lathrop died in 1972, and Wells Fargo Bank (plaintiff) served as trustee. Her brother Earl Mitchell died in 1993; Mitchell's biological son, Jon Newman, had been adopted out of the family in 1946. The bank petitioned the court to determine whether Newman still counted as Mitchell's "issue" for purposes of the trust, given that California's probate code had changed between 1972 and 1993 regarding adopted children's inheritance rights.
Whether the law in effect at the time a will was executed, rather than the law in effect at a beneficiary's later death, governs the testator's presumed intent regarding whether an adopted-out child qualifies as a sibling's "issue."