PORTLAND — Maine's highest court ruled Thursday that the 1991 adoption of Patricia Spado by her lesbian partner, the daughter of former IBM President Thomas Watson Jr., was legal.
The case will now move to a Connecticut court, where Spado will pursue her claim to a share of the Watson family fortune, said Michael Koskoff, her lead attorney in the Connecticut case.
One of Spado's Portland-based attorneys declared the judgment a victory for his client, who now lives in New York City.
"For all intents and purposes, the case is over here in Maine," said attorney Clifford H. Ruprecht. "The trustees (of Watson's estate) tried to declare she was not part of their family. The Supreme Court ruled in our favor that she is."
The ruling by the Maine Supreme Judicial Court overturned a Knox County probate judge's April 2008 decision to annul the adoption.
Spado could not be reached for comment Thursday night.
According to court documents, Spado and Olive Watson began a relationship in 1979.
Spado left her job to move to New York with Watson and became financially dependent on her, court documents state. Each year, the couple spent from two to four weeks at Watson's family summer home on North Haven.
In 1991, Watson, then 43, decided to adopt Spado, who was a year older, to protect her financially. The couple sought legal advice after learning that New York state prohibited adult adoptions between same-sex couples, according to the Maine Supreme Court decision.
They decided to have the adoption take place in Maine, and it was approved by the Knox County Probate Court on Aug. 21, 1991. Less than a year later, the women parted ways.
Thomas Watson died in 1993 without knowledge of the adoption. His wife died in 2004.
In September 2005, the trustees of family trusts created by Olive Watson's father for the benefit of his children and grandchildren filed a petition to have the adoption annulled.
The trustees alleged that the Knox County court lacked jurisdiction to grant the adoption because Knox County was not Spado's residence, and that Olive Watson and Spado never intended to establish a normal parent-child relationship because they were romantically involved.
In their ruling, the Supreme Court justices said the couple regularly spent about three weeks each summer at Watson's North Haven home before the adoption.
"The facts regarding the amount and nature of Patricia's time are not in dispute," the court wrote in its decision. "The issue before us is whether Patricia's statement to the Probate Court in the petition for adoption that she was living in Maine in August of 1991 was fraudulent. We conclude that it was not."
The justices said there was insufficient evidence of fraud to justify annulment of an 18-year-old decree. They also noted that adult adoptions have been recognized as a means to convey inheritance rights.
They said they were unswayed by the trustees' contention that Olive Watson's adoption of Spado should be annulled based on a public policy of prohibiting adoptions involving same-sex couples.
Stephen Hanscom, a Rockland attorney, argued the trustees' case before the Supreme Court last November. He could not be reached Thursday night.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff Writer Dennis Hoey can be contacted at 791-6365 or at:
dhoey@pressherald.com
Reader comments
Click here to view or add comments on this story
Were you interviewed for this story? If so, please fill out our accuracy form