Adoption by Cooper, In re, N-423

• Decision Date: 17 December 1970
• Docket Number: No. N-423,N-423
• Citation: 242 So.2d 196
• Parties: In re ADOPTION BY Billy S. COOPER and Ethel Cooper.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

Page 196

242 So.2d 196

In re ADOPTION BY Billy S. COOPER and Ethel Cooper.

No. N-423.

District Court of Appeal of Florida First District.

Dec. 17, 1970.

Rehearing Denied Jan. 14, 1971.

Savage, Krim & Simmons, Ocala, for appellants.

O'Neill & Tramell, and Harry C. Dozier, Jr., Ocala, for appellee.

WIGGINTON, Judge.

Appellant father, Fran Clifton Kennon, seeks review of a final judgment of adoption by which his minor child, Dawn Michelle Kennon, was declared to be the legal child of her maternal grandparents, Billy S. Cooper and Ethel Cooper. The principal point on appeal challenges the sufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment.

In summary, the evidence reflected by the record establishes without dispute that appellant father shot and killed his wife when the child here in controversy was approximately two and one-half years of age. The child was immediately taken into custody by its maternal grandparents and has lived with them for the ensuing one-year period transpiring prior to the institution of this action. Appellant father pleaded guilty to the offense of manslaughter and was sentenced to a term of imprisonment from six months to twenty years in the state penitentiary where he has remained incarcerated since the date of his conviction. At the time of the rendition of the judgment appealed, the child was approximately four and one-half years of age. The record is silent as to appellant's prospects for being released from prison at any time prior to the expiration of his sentence.

At the trial the court limited the issues to the three elements prescribed by statute, to wit: (1) the fitness of the petitioner grandparents to adopt the child; (2) the suitability of the child for adoption by petitioners; and, (3) whether the best interest of the child will be promoted by the adoption. ¹

In delineating the circumstances under which a judgment of adoption may be authorized, the Supreme Court in Fielding v. Highsmith ² said:

'By the great weight of authority, an order of adoption procured by a stranger will be declared invalid as against the natural parents, unless it is made to appear that the parents have consented to the adoption; or that it is manifestly for the best interest of the child that it be taken from the custody of the natural parents by such a judicial proceeding, of which the parents have notice and an opportunity to be heard; or that the minor has been abandoned, and notice of the proceedings and opportunity to be heard cannot be given to the parents because their whereabouts are unknown; or that the parents have been permanently deprived of the custody of the child by a competent court having jurisdiction of the parents and the child. * * *'

From the foregoing it appears that one of the circumstances justifying adoption by a stranger is where it has been established that it is manifestly for the best interest of the child that it be taken from the custody of the natural parents. In the judgment appealed the trial court held:

'* * * that the Petitioners BILLY S. COOPER and ETHEL COOPER are fit and proper persons to adopt the minor child herein sought to be adopted and that the best interest of the said child will be promoted by the adoption and that said child is...