An adopted person is deemed a “whole blood” offspring of the adopted parents and must be treated as a child of “lawful wedlock” of the adopted parents, the High Court of Fiji has ruled.
High Court judge Justice Deepthi Amaratunga made the ruling on June 14 while deciding on a case of whether an adopted child had rights to shares in the money left by one of the children who was legally born to his adopted parents.
“Section 11(1) of Adoption Act, reinforces this position as Applicant (Patric Seeto) by legal fiction is considered as a child of the parents of the deceased,” stated Justice Amaratunga.
“He belonged to the family through adoption and all rights of a child born to that family is conferred to Applicant by law.
“Applicant is deemed a child of ‘lawful wedlock’ of adopted parents. So, he is deemed ‘full blood’ brother of the issues of adopted parents regarding intestacy of any person including adopted parents or their children.
“If the adopted person is excluded from interpretation of ‘whole blood’ it will not only create a mischief of discrimination to adopted child and conflict with Section 11(1) and or Section 11(2) of Adoption Act, but also exclude members of adopted family from inheriting from an adopted person, in an intestacy.
“This is clearly not a position that was expected in relation to an adopted child.”
Justice Amaratunga ruled Patric Seeto was entitled to one-third of the Fiji National Provident Fund monies left by his adopted brother.
