Adoption of Syck, In re

• Decision Date: 04 October 1990
• Docket Number: No. 69415,69415
• Citation: Adoption of Syck, In re, 562 N.E.2d 174, 138 Ill.2d 255, 149 Ill.Dec. 710 (Ill. 1990)
• Parties: , 149 Ill.Dec. 710 In re ADOPTION OF Paul Timothy SYCK (Mark T. Syck et al., Appellees, v. Lorrie A. Snyder, Appellant).
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 174

562 N.E.2d 174

138 Ill.2d 255, 149 Ill.Dec. 710

In re ADOPTION OF Paul Timothy SYCK (Mark T. Syck et al Appellees, v. Lorrie A. Snyder, Appellant).

No. 69415.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 4, 1990.

Heyl, Royster, Voelker & Allen, Peoria (Karen L. Kendall, Timothy L. Bertschy and Joseph G. Feehan, of counsel), for appellant

Patrick T. Chambers, Peoria, for appellees.

Justice STAMOS delivered the opinion of the court:

This appeal is from a decision by the circuit court of Peoria County adjudging Lorrie A. Snyder to be an unfit parent of Paul Timothy Syck, a minor, as defined by section 1(D)(b) of the Adoption Act (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 40, par. 1501(D)(b)), and terminating her parental rights. The appellate court affirmed the finding of parental unfitness and termination of parental rights. (192 Ill.App.3d 1115 (unpublished order under Supreme Court Rule 23).) We granted Lorrie A. Snyder's petition for leave to appeal under Supreme Court Rule 315 (107 Ill.2d R. 315).

FACTS

On February 2, 1988, Mark T. Syck, the natural father of the minor Paul Timothy Syck, and Lisa M. Syck, Mark's second wife, filed a petition for adoption of Paul. Before a minor may be adopted, it is necessary either for the minor's natural parents or guardian to consent to the adoption or for a court to find that the natural parents are unfit. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 40, pars. 1510(a)(1), (b)(1).) When Mark informed Lorrie, his former wife and Paul's natural mother, that he and Lisa intended to adopt Paul, Lorrie refused to consent to the adoption. Consequently, Mark and Lisa alleged in their petition for adoption that Lorrie was an unfit parent under section 1(D)(b) of the Adoption Act, in that Lorrie had "fail[ed] to maintain a reasonable degree of interest, concern or responsibility as to the child's welfare." Ill.Rev.Stat.1987, ch. 40, par. 1501(D)(b).

A hearing was held to determine whether Lorrie was an unfit parent on these grounds and to determine whether her parental rights should be forever terminated. Testimony was received from Lorrie, Mark, Brenda Syck (Mark's mother, who cared for Paul much of the time while Paul was in Mark's custody), and others. In order to judge the validity of the appellate court's Rule 23 order, it is essential that we review the relevant facts revealed by this testimony.

Paul was born on July 24, 1982; at this time, Lorrie was 16 years old and had a ninth-grade education, and Mark was 20 years old. For a time, Mark, Lorrie, and Paul lived in Germany, where Mark was stationed in the military service. At Mark's suggestion, Lorrie and Paul moved to Pennsylvania in August 1983; Mark joined them in September 1983. After approximately one month, Mark left Lorrie and Paul and moved back into his parents' house in Peoria, Illinois. In a matter of a week or so, Lorrie called the Sycks in Peoria and asked Mark if he or his parents would send her some money so that she could care for Paul. When the Sycks refused to send her any money, Lorrie told Mark's parents that they would have to come and pick up Paul and care for him until she could "get on [her] feet and get a stable place for [her and Paul] to live." The Sycks agreed to care for Paul, but on a temporary basis only. According to Lorrie, when the Sycks arrived she told Brenda, Paul's paternal grandmother, that she would come and get Paul in a couple of months when she had a job and a place to live. Conversely, both Mark and Brenda testified that when Lorrie called she threatened to give Paul up if they did not come for him; Lorrie denied this. Mark and Brenda also did not recall Lorrie's saying anything about when she would be able to take Paul back.

Whether Lorrie wrote to the Sycks during the next five months, up until March 1984, Mark and Brenda could not recall when questioned, but they did recall her telephoning collect two or three times, which the Sycks "had to stop." Lorrie, on the other hand, testified that, sometime late in 1983, she wrote a letter to the Sycks stating that she had a job and would come and get Paul as soon as she found an apartment; Lorrie further testified that she later telephoned and told Brenda that she was coming to get Paul, but Brenda told Lorrie that Mark would not allow Lorrie to take Paul back. When Lorrie reminded Brenda that the Sycks had agreed to care for Paul for only a short time, Brenda said Lorrie would have to talk to Mark. This pattern of Lorrie's being able to talk only to Brenda, who said that she would have to talk to Mark and Mark would call Lorrie, continued for the next four years. Also in 1983, Lorrie sent Paul a Christmas present and called the Sycks' house to wish Paul a merry Christmas, but Mark and Paul were not there.

In January 1984, Lorrie received notice that Mark had filed for dissolution of their marriage. In March, Lorrie arrived in Peoria and moved into the YWCA. She called the Sycks' house a number of times to find out where Mark and Paul were living, but Brenda merely took Lorrie's number and said she would have Mark call her. Later, Lorrie talked to Mark twice over the telephone, asking to see Paul; Mark refused, saying, on his attorney's advice, that any visitation should wait until after the dissolution proceedings. Lorrie also visited Mark's father's place of employment to ask him to intervene and get Mark's agreement to her seeing Paul; Mark's father declined. Brenda testified that Lorrie then threatened to "snatch" Paul. During this same time, Lorrie voluntarily admitted herself into an institution for treatment of alcohol and substance abuse problems she was having; she was successfully treated. While there, Lorrie called Brenda, who offered to visit Lorrie and did so twice, at Lorrie's request bringing Paul on the second visit.

On April 3, 1984, a judgment of dissolution of marriage, which incorporated a property settlement agreement, entered by the circuit court. In regard to custody of Paul, the judgment of dissolution stated that both Lorrie and Mark were "fit and proper persons to have custody of" Paul. Lorrie, though, voluntarily agreed that Mark should have custody because of her problems with drugs and because she did not have a home or a job at the time, whereas Mark and his parents could provide Paul a home. The property settlement agreement awarded Lorrie visitation on alternate weekends and alternate holidays and for three weeks during the summer; neither parent was allowed to take Paul out of Illinois without prior court approval.

All the witnesses agreed that, during the next few months, Lorrie took Paul for visitation every scheduled time. The witnesses also agreed that when Lorrie took Paul for the three-week summer visitation in 1984, she returned Paul early (during the second week according to Lorrie, after the first week according to Brenda) because at that time she was employed as the live-in companion of an elderly Peoria woman, and Lorrie felt this woman was not treating Paul nicely and that Paul, who was then two years old, was not happy.

In the summer or fall of 1984, Lorrie discovered that the father she had never known was living in Pennsylvania, and she decided to visit him. Lorrie told Brenda that she would be gone for two weeks. Upon finding her father an impoverished alcoholic, however, Lorrie decided to assist him: She cashed in her return bus ticket to Peoria, moved in with her father, and got a job. Lorrie called Brenda to say that she would not be back for a while.

In fact, Lorrie did not return to Peoria until the hearing on the petition for adoption was held in August 1988. In the opinion of appellees, Mark and Lisa, Lorrie's manifestations of interest, concern, and responsibility for Paul's welfare during the intervening four years, especially her failure to see Paul, prove Lorrie to be an unfit parent.

Lorrie, Brenda, and Mark testified to the number of times Lorrie called the Sycks' house and the number of letters, cards, and gifts she mailed to Paul and to the Sycks from the time she left Peoria in 1984 until late 1987. Their memories as to the number of contacts were frequently cloudy, with Mark's memory being the vaguest, and their memories sometimes disagreed. It is undisputed, though, that when Lorrie called the Sycks' house she almost invariably could talk to Brenda solely, talking to Mark only once and never to Paul.

In 1984, Lorrie testified, she telephoned the Sycks' house twice from Pennsylvania and talked to Brenda; when Lorrie told Brenda she would not be returning to Peoria for some time, Brenda told her that if she stayed away too long Mark would not allow her to see Paul; Lorrie also asked for a picture of Paul. She telephoned next on Christmas Day 1984, but there was no answer.

An important event in the relationship between Lorrie and Paul occurred in the spring of 1985 when Mark moved out of his parents' house with Paul. Mark admitted that he told his parents not to give Lorrie his new address or his telephone number; if she wanted to contact him she would simply have to do so through his parents. Lorrie asked Brenda many times for Mark and Paul's new address and telephone number, but Brenda always refused to divulge it, telling Lorrie that if Lorrie wanted to talk with Mark about something she would have Mark call Lorrie back. It turns out that during this entire time Mark's telephone number was either unlisted or listed under the name of his second wife, Lisa. Mark conceded that there was no way for Lorrie to discover his telephone number, owing to his instructions to his parents and to Lorrie's not being told of Mark's marriage to Lisa until January 1988. The consequence of Mark's actions was that the only address and telephone number which Lorrie had for communicating with Paul were those of Mark's parents, with whom Paul no longer resided.

Lorrie testified that in 1985 she telephoned four times, in March, June, and July, and on Christmas Day. In March, Lorrie asked Brenda for...