Facts
A. X. filed an adoption request for B. Y., the non-marital son of his wife. Until 1983, B. Y. lived in Germany with his grandmother. By decision of 17 April 1985, the State Council rejected the adoption request. A. X. appealed this decision to the Federal Tribunal, requesting the annulment of the contested decision and authorization of the adoption of B. Y.Considerations
According to Art. 264 CC, a child may be adopted if the prospective adoptive parents have provided care and upbringing for at least two years and if, in view of all the circumstances, it can be expected that the creation of a parent-child relationship will serve the child's well-being without unjustifiably affecting other children of the adoptive parents. A spouse may adopt the child of the other spouse if they have been married for two years or the adopting spouse is at least 35 years old (Art. 264a para. 3 CC).
The Federal Tribunal considers that the requirement of a parent-child relationship of at least two years is not fulfilled in this case. Although B. Y. has spent a total of 262 weeks of vacation with the applicant since 1967, these occasional stays…