Court Seals Adoption Papers Willed by Ex-Mayor : Walker Children Can’t Get Mother’s ID

The adopted children of the late New York Mayor Jimmy Walker aren’t entitled to find out who their natural mother is even though their adoption decrees were willed to them, the state’s highest court ruled today.

In a 4-1 ruling, the Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision preventing the executor of Walker’s estate from turning over the adoption decrees that identify the natural mother or mothers of Mary Ann Walker Narita, 48, of Oakland, Calif., and James J. Walker II, 47, of Brooklyn.

“Notwithstanding testator’s (the late mayor’s) intent, the legacy may not be given effect because we conclude that to do so would be contrary to the public policy of New York,” Judge Richard Simons wrote for the court majority.

From 1873 until 1924, the state Legislature permitted public access to adoption records. In 1924, the Legislature authorized courts, in their discretion, to order adoption records sealed. Confidentiality became mandatory in 1938.

Both of Walker’s children were adopted in Cook County, Ill., in 1936 and 1937, during his marriage to actress Betty Compton, his second wife. The court action was taken in New York because Walker had copies of the adoption records in his possession in New York when he died in 1946.

Among the reasons for confidentiality, the court said, is to protect the identity and privacy of natural parents. “It is irrelevant that the information was available to petitioners (the two adoptive children) at one time or that testator (Walker) could have transferred the decrees to them during his lifetime because neither course was actually pursued,” Simons wrote.

The court noted that the late mayor’s children can pursue adoption records in Illinois. Narita, a legal secretary who took the court action and was joined in it by her adoptive brother, said she wasn’t sure what her next step might be. “I don’t know, I’ll have to think about it,” she said.