Heir's Adoption
of Lesbian Lover Annulled in Maine

An adult adoption involving lesbian partners and a claim on one of America's premier business fortunes has been annulled.

At issue is whether it was legal for a judge in Maine to allow Olive Watson to adopt Patricia Spado in 1991. Watson's father was Thomas Watson, who built IBM into a computer giant.

Spado and Olive Watson's relationship ended a year after the adoption. Thomas Watson's heirs challenged the adoption in court in 2005.

The judge who granted the adoption annulled it last spring on a residency issue. Her ruling didn't come to light until appeal briefs were filed with Maine's supreme court last week.

Spado and Watson lived in New York but spent several weeks each summer on an island in Maine's Penobscot Bay. (AP)