A case decided by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has applied anti-discrimination law to confirm that adopted children are 'statutory next of kin'.
The case concerned a £3.2 million trust set up by a father in 1948 for the benefit of his daughter. She benefitted from the trust during her lifetime. At the time of her death, she had no surviving parents, siblings or children. She had had a sister, but she had died leaving two adopted sons. The trust deed provided that if the daughter was childless and her sister died before her, the trust fund passed to her 'statutory next of kin'.
The Court was asked to determine whether her nephews by adoption fell within the definition of statutory next of kin and whether the ECHR could affect the situation.
The Court held that the definition of statutory next of kin did not include the adopted children as that was the relevant law in 1948 when the trust was created. However, the Court also decided that the ECHR could affect the trust and, as a result of this, the trust should be construed to eliminate discrimination against the adopted sons and thus the trust fund should pass to the sister's adopted children rather than to distant cousins