Frank R. v. Mother Goose Adoptions, 021016 AZAPP2, 2 CA-JV 2015-0120
| Opinion Judge | VÁSQUEZ, PRESIDING JUDGE |
| Party Name | Frank R., Appellant, v. Mother Goose Adoptions, Appellee. |
| Attorney | Sarah Michèle Martin, Tucson Counsel for Appellant Frank R. MyersStrickland, PLLC, Tucson By Heather M. Strickland and Jessica C. Graves Counsel for Appellee Mother Goose Adoptions |
| Judge Panel | Presiding Judge Vásquez authored the opinion of the Court, in which Judge Miller concurred and Chief Judge Eckerstrom dissented. ECKERSTROM, Chief Judge, dissenting |
| Case Date | February 10, 2016 |
| Court | Arizona Court of Appeals |
Appeal from the Superior Court in Pima County No. S20140221 The Honorable K.C. Stanford, Judge
OPINION
¶1 Frank R. appeals from the juvenile court's order terminating his parental rights to E.E. pursuant to A.R.S. § 8-533(B)(6), for failing to file a notice of paternity in compliance with A.R.S. § 8-106.01, Arizona's putative fathers registry. Frank contends application of the registry to him was unconstitutional because he and E.E.'s mother are California residents and, as a result of her deceptive acts and false statements in an affidavit and to appellee Mother Goose Adoptions, he did not know she had given birth to E.E. in Arizona and had consented to the child's adoption. He also challenges the court's finding that termination of his rights was in E.E.'s best interest.2 We affirm.
Background
¶2 We view the evidence in the light most favorable to upholding the juvenile court's ruling. Manuel M. v. Ariz. Dept of Econ. Sec, 218 Ariz. 205, ¶ 2, 181 P.3d 1126, 1128 (App. 2008). In the summer of 2013, eighteen-year-old Rachel E. and twenty-one-year-old Frank, both California residents, developed an intimate relationship and in early August learned Rachel was pregnant. Rachel and Frank lived near each other with their respective parents in California, but Rachel intermittently lived with Frank in his parents' home until she moved out permanently in November.
¶3 In December, Rachel contacted the Adoption Networks Law Center (the Center), an adoption law firm in California, to explore placing the expected child for adoption. Frank and his mother asked Frank's cousin, Alex Joaquin Saenz, a licensed patent attorney in California, to help him assert his parental rights to the child. Saenz testified at the severance hearing that he had contacted the Center in February 2014 and asked to speak to the caseworker on Frank's behalf, conveying that Frank "wanted to claim his right with respect to [Rachel's unborn child]." No one from the Center called him back, all of which Saenz confirmed in a letter to the Center.
¶4 Wendy McGreevy, an attorney with the Center, testified at the severance hearing that Rachel had contacted the Center in December 2013. A colleague subsequently asked McGreevy to contact Frank, the person Rachel had identified as the father. When McGreevy spoke to Frank on February 26, 2014, he told her that if the child was his, he would "100% take the baby and raise it." McGreevy therefore recommended that the Center decline working with Rachel because the father of the child was opposed to an adoption.
¶5 In March 2014, unbeknownst to Frank, Rachel and her mother called Mother Goose in Arizona and spoke to Deborah O'Kane, the Executive Director. They discussed placing the child for adoption and Rachel completed the requisite paperwork to begin the process. Both verbally and in forms she submitted, Rachel informed Mother Goose she had no idea who the father of the child was, claiming she had sexual relations with numerous men during the relevant period. She did not tell Mother Goose about having contacted the Center in California, leaving blank a related question in the forms she submitted. Around this time, Rachel and her mother drove to Arizona and met with Mother Goose personnel as well as a physician.
¶6 Mother Goose sent Rachel profiles of potential adoptive parents and in April, when Rachel and her mother traveled to Arizona a second time, they met with a Mother Goose counselor and chose the specific adoptive parents she wanted to adopt her child. Mother Goose arranged and paid for accommodations for Rachel and her mother at a hotel in Phoenix while they waited for the birth of the child. Rachel signed an affidavit in which she stated that no man had acknowledged or claimed paternity of the child or had provided or promised to provide her support during the pregnancy, she did not intend to name any man on the birth certificate as the father, and there was no person she had reason to believe had an interest in the child.
¶7 On May 5, Rachel gave birth to E.E. The adoptive mother attended the birth and her husband arrived the following day. The adoptive parents are from Tennessee and had adopted another child through Mother Goose four years earlier. On May 8, three days after the birth of E.E., Rachel executed a Relinquishment of Parental Rights for Adoption, which provided that she relinquished her rights to Mother Goose and consented to its placement of E.E. for adoption. The following day, Frank asked Rachel about the baby through Facebook. Rachel responded that the child was African American and was not his. That same day Frank again asked about the baby, asked Rachel where she had been, and said he was concerned about whether the baby was healthy and whether Rachel was taking care of the child. He also said, "And if it's mine, I'm gonna support the baby." Rachel did not tell him the baby had been born in Arizona.
¶8 Rachel and her mother returned to California on May 10. Mother Goose filed a petition for termination of parent-child relationship and appointment of guardian for the child on May 14 in Pima County Superior Court. The petition was verified by its counsel and included various exhibits, including an affidavit from Rachel avowing she did not know the identity of the father and no man had come forward expressing an interest in the child. At oral argument before this court, Mother Goose's counsel, whose firm also represented Mother Goose below, conceded there was no basis under A.R.S. § 12-401 for believing Pima County was an appropriate venue for filing the petition when the child was born in Maricopa County.
¶9 O'Kane testified at the severance hearing that she knew Rachel was a California resident who had traveled to Arizona for the sole purpose of placing her child for adoption and had returned to California at the time Mother Goose filed the petition. Nevertheless, Mother Goose alleged in the severance petition that Rachel resided in Arizona and listed her address as that of the hotel where Mother Goose had arranged for Rachel and her mother to stay while in Phoenix. Mother Goose further alleged it had custody of E.E. and that Rachel had relinquished her parental rights to the child and consented to his adoption by the adoptive parents. See A.R.S. § 8-533(B)(7) (providing as ground for termination of parental rights parents' relinquishment of rights to agency or consent to adoption). Mother Goose alleged further that the identity of the child's father was unknown and sought to terminate Rachel's rights pursuant to § 8-533(B)(7) and the rights of any potential father pursuant to § 8-533(B)(5) on the ground that no person claiming to be the father had filed and served Rachel with a paternity action within thirty days of service of a notice to potential father pursuant to A.R.S. § 8-106(G). That notice, which is required in an adoption under § 8-106, was served by publication in Maricopa County, the final of three notices appearing on May 30, 2014. Mother Goose requested that the court appoint the prospective adoptive parents as guardians of the child, and vest legal custody in Mother Goose, pursuant to A.R.S. § 8-538(B)(2).
¶10 Mother Goose also initiated a referral pursuant to the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC), see A.R.S. § 8-548, requesting that the adoptive parents be permitted to leave Arizona with E.E. James O'Donnell, Arizona's ICPC administrator, processed that referral and sent O'Kane an email on May 13, stating it appeared from the information he had received from her that Rachel was a California resident and determination of which state had jurisdiction should begin there. O'Kane immediately responded that Rachel's father lived in California and falsely stated that her mother lived in Arizona and Rachel had come to Arizona to live with her mother and would "continue to split time between both parents." O'Donnell approved the ICPC request on May 13, and the adoptive parents left Arizona the next day with E.E. and returned to Tennessee. On July 30, 2014, the juvenile court terminated the parental rights of "John Doe" and relinquished jurisdiction to Tennessee pursuant to A.R.S. § 25-1032(A)(2), a provision of the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). See A.R.S. §§ 25-1001 through 25-1067.
¶11 In the meantime, Frank had seen a photograph of E.E. on Facebook and believed the child looked like him. In Los Angeles Superior Court, he filed a Petition to Establish Parental Rights (the California petition) in early July 2014, and the court set a hearing on the petition for August 28. Rachel was served with the California petition at the end of July. Rachel's mother called O'Kane on July 30, told her about the paternity action, and sent a copy of the petition. When questioned about Rachel's actions at the severance hearing, O'Kane testified that Rachel had not told the truth when she claimed she had no idea who the father of the child was and when she signed the affidavit to that effect, committing perjury. O'Kane also admitted that by not completing a portion of Mother Goose's application that required Rachel to state whether she had sought the assistance of another adoption agency in her home state or another state, she essentially had "falsified" its records and failed to provide information.
¶12 On August 25, Mother Goose filed a motion in the juvenile court pursuant to Rule 60(c)(2), Ariz. R. Civ...
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