Legal Question in Civil Litigation in North Carolina

Was your brother legally adopted by this man or just raised by this man? If your brother was legally adopted, then he would be treated as this man's child, just the same as if he was the man's biological child. As such, he would be entitled to inherit this man's estate, along with any other children of the man, under the state's intestacy laws. If the man merely raised the child, then the answer is no and your brother could not inherit.

The only possible exception is where your brother was "equitably adopted." To prove equitable adoption, your brother or his parent/guardian will need to show:

The elements necessary to establish the existence of equitable adoption are:

1. an express or implied agreement to adopt the child.

2. reliance on that agreement.

3. performance by the natural parents of the child in giving up custody.

4. performance by the child in living in the home of the foster parents and acting as their child.

5. partial performance by the foster parents in taking the child into their home and treating the child as their own, and

6. the intestacy of the foster parents.