In a legal twist a judge calls “border(ing) on the surreal” a millionaire polo club founder in Florida has adopted his 42-year-old girlfriend to allegedly protect his wealth from a wrongful death lawsuit.

John Goodman, 48, is facing a civil suit launched by Lili and William Wilson, the parents of a 23-year-old man killed in a car crash in Wellington, Florida in 2010, according to the Palm Beach Post.

The lawsuit states Goodman had a blood alcohol level double Florida’s legal driving limit at the time of the Feb. 12, 2010 crash that killed Scott Patrick Wilson.

Last October, Goodman legally made Heather Laruso Hutchins, his girlfriend of about two years, his daughter. The move could give her immediate access to a third of a trust fund set up for his two children because she is over 35 — a fund Goodman cannot access himself. The fund is estimated at about $200 million according to the Post.

“By way of this adoption, John Goodman now effectively owns one third of the trust assets,” said Scott Smith, an attorney for the plaintiffs. “It cannot go unrecognized that he chose to adopt his 42-year-old adult girlfriend as opposed to a needy child.”

Judge Glenn Kelley, who is handling the case, called the tactic “unprecedented.”

“The events which serve as the grounds for the relief sought by the plaintiffs border on the surreal and take the court into a legal twilight zone,” he wrote in an order allowing the plaintiffs’ lawyers access to the Goodman adoption information.

“The defendant has effectively diverted a significant portion of the assets of the children’s trust to a person with whom he is intimately involved at a time when his personal assets are largely at risk in this case,” he wrote.

The judge had previously ruled the trust fund for Goodman’s children would not be revealed to the jury in case it influenced them to give him an inflated financial penalty that could lead to bankruptcy, according to the Houston Chronicle.

The Wilsons’ lawyers are now appealing this decision.

The adoption is being recognized as legitimate by Judge Kelley for the purposes of the civil trial.

Dan Bachi, Goodman’s attorney, told the Post that the adoption had nothing to do with the lawsuit — it was to protect the stability of his children and family investments.

Florida state law permits adult adoptions if the birth parents and spouse (if there is one) of the individual agrees. Most adult adoptions are done to cement the bond between foster parents and foster children, or for inheritance or end-of-life matters.

There appears to be no legal reason for a sexual relationship to cease between the now father and adopted daughter since the state’s incest laws only apply in the case of blood relations.

But the adoption is in violation of the Florida adoption statutes said Charlotte Danciu, a Florida-based adoption attorney of 27 years.

“This was in my opinion an offensive abuse and manipulation of the law for financial gain,” she said. “The intent of the law is not to create a legal relationship but a parent-child relationship.”

“It’s like marrying someone for citizenship...This not a legitimate adoption,” she said.

What made this piece of “awful and brilliant…shrewd lawyering,” even sneakier is that the adoption was done in a different county from the one where the civil suit was filed so it wouldn’t ring any alarm bells, she said.

Megan Lindsey, assistant policy director at the National Council for Adoption, says the case is “ethically unfortunate.”

“I’m disappointed that they’ve strayed from the intent of adoption, which is to create a permanent loving family relationship, and used it for financial gain,” she said.

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Some states only permit adult adoption if the adult is incapacitated or there is an existing parent-child relationship.

In addition to the civil suit, Goodman also faces criminal charges of DUI manslaughter, vehicular homicide and leaving the scene of a crash in connection with the 2010 car crash — meaning he could face up to 30 years in prison. Both the civil and criminal cases go to trial in March.

The millionaire inherited his fortune from his father, a Texan air-conditioning manufacturer. Goodman also worked at the company, Goodman Manufacturing which sold in 2004 for a reported $1.4 billion, but spent far more time involved in polo, founding the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington.