In Portland, Maine, a court has annulled an adoption of an adult by a lesbian couple in a dispute over the beneficiaries of the fortune of Thomas Watson, Jr. — founder of International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. His daughter Olive Watson adopted Patricia Spado in 1991 to create something akin to a legal family status. However, they broke up a year later. Spado, however, is far more interested in the status of a child than a spouse with millions at stake.

The probate court in Maine annulled the adoption on residency grounds. I am very sympathetic of the need of these women to go to such lengths to create a legal family status in the absence of same-sex marriage. Both women were in their 40s. However, I must confess that I am less than sympathetic of this claim. Had they been married, Spado would not be entitled to this fortune. The status of an adopted child was an obvious substitute and lasted only a year. The women were together for 14 years and Watson gave Spado $500,000 in exchange for relinquishing her claim on real estate. However, in a letter at the time of the divorce, Watson In Portland, Maine, a court has annulled an adoption of an adult by a lesbian couple in a dispute over the beneficiaries of the fortune of Thomas Watson, Jr. — founder of International Business Machines (IBM) Corp. His daughter Olive Watson adopted Patricia Spado in 1991 to create something akin to a legal family status. However, they broke up a year later. Spado, however, is far more interested in the status of a child than a spouse with millions at stake.

The probate court in Maine annulled the adoption on residency grounds. I am very sympathetic of the need of these women to go to such lengths to create a legal family status in the absence of same-sex marriage. Both women were in their 40s. However, I must confess that I am less than sympathetic of this claim. Had they been married, Spado would not be entitled to this fortune. The status of an adopted child was an obvious substitute and lasted only a year. The women were together for 14 years and Watson gave Spado $500,000 in exchange for relinquishing her claim on real estate. However, in the divorce, Watson wrote Spado that “I shall at no time initiate any action to revoke or annul my adoption of you.” She didn’t initiate it; the other Watsons did.

In 2005, after Thomas Watson and his wife had both died, the adoption was challenged in court by other heirs to the Watson fortune. Spado’s case appears very opportunistic. She had entered the arrangement to create a substitute status to spouse-spouse, not parent-child. There seems like principle in this effort.

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