C was born on May 2, 1953. Shortly thereafter, C’s mother relinquished custody of C to W and her husband R. W and R continued to fully support C until R passed away on August 16, 1960 in Tennessee.

W petitioned to adopt C. The required home study was completed, and the adoption was approved on June 29, 1962. However, through no fault of W, the final decree of adoption was not entered until September 18, 1962, more than two years after R’s death.

In October 1962 W applied for child’s social security benefits for C based on R’s earnings record. Because she had adopted C more than 2 years after R’s death, however, her application was denied. In order to qualify for child’s social security benefits on a deceased parent’s earnings record, a child must be the legal child of the deceased worker, or be adopted by the worker’s surviving spouse within two years of the worker’s death.

Undaunted, R went back to court and sought a nunc pro tunc order dating the adoption decree back to the time the adoption was approved. This was allowed under Tennessee law because, for a variety of reasons and through no fault of the adopting parent, an adoption decree was not always signed on the same date the adoption was approved.

This nunc pro tunc order correcting the date of the adoption decree allowed C to qualify for child’s social security benefits because the adoption by R’s surviving spouse occurred within two years of his death.

See Social Security Ruling (SSR) 66-33.

This material should not be construed as legal advice for any particular fact situation, but is intended for general informational purposes only. For advice specific to any individual situation, an experienced attorney should be contacted.