A wage earner and his wife filed a petition on March 16, 1961 in Oakland County Michigan to adopt his granddaughter, Nancy Benjamin. The Probate Judge issued an order on March 27, 1961 for the Oakland County Welfare Agency to investigate and make a report on the child’s best interests.

The Welfare Agent filed its report on March 30th, 1961 recommending that the adoption proceed and that the usual one-year supervisory period be shortened to four months.

On that same day, the Judge entered an order terminating the parental rights of Nancy’s natural parents and making her a ward of the court for the purpose of adoption and placing her in the custody of the petitioners under the supervision of the Oakland County Welfare Agent.

In a sad turn of events the worker died on July 26, 1961 and his wife died on August 4, 1961. In November 1961 the Probate Judge entered a nunc pro tunc adoption decree backdated to March 30th, 1961.

A nunc pro tunc Order is one that corrects an inadvertence or mistake but is backdated to the time of the original order. It is, in effect, a way of doing what should have been done in the first place, or correcting an inadvertent error in the original order.

The problem with the Probate Court’s purported nunc pro tunc order in the instant case was that it did not correct an inadvertent error or mistake. Rather, it for the first time purported to finalize the adoption of Nancy Benjamin by the petitioners. In sum, it was a void order.

Thus, when Nancy’s guardian later applied for child’s social security benefits on her behalf based of the earnings record of her purported adoptive father, it was held that she was not his legal child and, unfortunately, was not entitled to benefits.

See Social Security Ruling (SSR) 66-22c.

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.