C.E.L. v. T.L. (In re Adoption of B.N.A.)

• Decision Date: 06 December 2018
• Docket Number: No. 20180316-CA,20180316-CA
• Citation: 438 P.3d 10
• Parties: In the MATTER OF the ADOPTION OF B.N.A., a Person Under Eighteen Years of Age C.E.L., Appellant, v. T.L. and A.L., Appellees.
• Court: Utah Court of Appeals

438 P.3d 10

In the MATTER OF the ADOPTION OF B.N.A., a Person Under Eighteen Years of Age

C.E.L., Appellant,

v.T.L. and A.L., Appellees.

No. 20180316-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah.

Filed December 6, 2018

Karra J. Porter and Crystal Lynn Orgill, Salt Lake City, Attorneys for Appellant

Ronald D. Wilkinson, Provo, Marianne P. Card, and Sara Pfrommer, Park City, Attorneys for Appellees

Judge Ryan M. Harris authored this Opinion, in which Judges Jill M. Pohlman and Diana Hagen concurred.

Opinion

HARRIS, Judge:

¶1 Utah adoption law provides that "[a]doption proceedings shall be commenced by filing a petition with the clerk of the district court ... in the district where the prospective adoptive parent resides." Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-105(1)(a) (LexisNexis Supp. 2018). In this case, we must determine what the consequences are, under this statute, if prospective adoptive parents file an adoption petition in the wrong district. The biological father (Father) of the child in question (Child) contends that the statute speaks to a court’s subject-matter jurisdiction, and asserts that a petition filed in the wrong district must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction. The prospective adoptive parents (Petitioners), on the other hand, contend that the statute speaks simply to venue, and assert that when a petition is filed in the wrong district, the court has jurisdiction to continue to adjudicate the case, but must transfer the case upon request to the proper district. For the reasons set forth herein, we find Petitioners’ position persuasive, and therefore affirm the district court’s decision to deny Father’s motion to dismiss.

BACKGROUND

¶2 In early 2014, Father engaged in a brief romantic relationship with a woman (Mother) who became pregnant and gave birth to Child in November 2014. After the relationship ended, Father asserts that he had no further communication or interaction with Mother, and therefore claims to have been unaware of Mother’s pregnancy or of Child’s existence until after Child was born, and unaware that he was Child’s father until December 2017. It is undisputed that Father has never had any relationship with Child, who is now four years old.

¶3 In the meantime, in the spring of 2017 Mother decided to place Child for adoption, and began working with an adoption agency toward that end. The adoption agency selected Petitioners as a potential adoptive family, and Petitioners filed a petition for adoption in April 2017. Despite the fact that Petitioners reside in Utah County, part of Utah’s Fourth Judicial District, they filed their petition in Tooele County, part of Utah’s Third Judicial District.

¶4 Immediately after filing their petition, Petitioners asked the court to authorize a "commissioner" to take Mother’s relinquishment, in accordance with Utah Code section 78B-6-124(1)(b). The court approved Petitioner’s request, and signed an order appointing a representative of the adoption agency to take Mother’s relinquishment. After the order was signed, Mother met with the representative and signed a document relinquishing her parental rights to Child. One of that document’s provisions stated that Mother’s relinquishment was irrevocable "as to [Petitioners]," but that Mother was "not ... consenting to the adoption of [Child] by any other person or persons." In addition, the document provided that, "[i]f [Petitioners] are unable to complete the adoption of [Child] for any reason, and the adoption petition is dismissed or denied, it is in [Child’s] best interest that he be returned to [Mother’s] custody and control."¹ Soon after Mother signed the relinquishment, Petitioners filed a copy of it with the court, and a few days later the court signed an order awarding temporary custody of Child to Petitioners.

¶5 Just a few months later, before the adoption was finalized, Mother filed a motion to set aside her relinquishment, asserting that she did not sign the document freely and voluntarily. The district court, after a half-day evidentiary hearing, determined that Mother had acted voluntarily and was not under duress or undue influence, and denied Mother’s motion. The court’s decision to deny Mother’s motion is not at issue in this appeal.

¶6 About a month later, in early January 2018, Father entered an appearance in the adoption case and filed a motion seeking leave to intervene, asking that the adoption proceedings be dismissed. A few weeks later, Father filed a second motion, raising for the first time his argument—advanced here in this appeal—that the district court did not have subject-matter jurisdiction over the case because Petitioners filed their petition in the wrong district.

¶7 After full briefing and oral argument, the district court denied Father’s motion to dismiss, and determined that it did have subject-matter jurisdiction over the case. Father then asked for permission to appeal the district court’s interlocutory order regarding jurisdiction, and we granted that request.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶8 The issue presented in this case is one of statutory interpretation: whether Utah Code section 78B-6-105(1)(a) acts as a limit on a district court’s subject-matter jurisdiction, or is merely a venue statute. "We review questions of statutory interpretation for correctness, affording no deference to the district court’s legal conclusions." State v. Stewart , 2018 UT 24, ¶ 5, 438 P.3d 515 (quotation simplified).

ANALYSIS

¶9 The statute in question states, in fairly straightforward language, that "[a]doption proceedings shall be commenced by filing a petition with the clerk of the district court," and that, if the prospective adoptive parent is a Utah resident, the petition is to be filed "in the district where the prospective adoptive parent resides." Utah Code Ann. § 78B-6-105(1)(a). All parties agree that this language demands that adoption proceedings be initiated by the filing of a petition. And all parties agree that, at least in adoption cases that are to be filed in district court rather than juvenile court, see id. § 78B-6-105(1)(c), and in which the prospective adoptive parent is a Utah resident, see id. § 78B-6-105(1)(a), this petition is supposed to be filed in the district where the prospective adoptive parent resides. On these points, the language appears plain and unambiguous.

¶10 The statute is not as plain, however, when it comes to setting forth the consequences that attach when a petitioner files an adoption petition in the wrong judicial district.² Father asserts that a petition filed in the wrong district must be dismissed, because he reads the statute as speaking to a court’s subject-matter jurisdiction to adjudicate the case. Petitioners, on the other hand, point out that any Utah district court has subject-matter jurisdiction over adoption cases as a class, and read the statute as a venue provision that does not implicate a court’s jurisdiction, but merely allows any party to request that the petition be transferred to the proper district. To resolve this dispute, we start by examining the concept of subject-matter jurisdiction, and then return to a further examination of the text of the statute.

¶11 "The notion of ‘jurisdiction’ is a slippery one." In re adoption of B.B. , 2017 UT 59, ¶ 125, 417 P.3d 1. The word "jurisdiction" means "different things in different circumstances." Id. Sometimes, it is used to refer to "the scope of a court’s power to issue a certain form of relief," while at other times the word is used to refer to "the territorial authority of the court that issues a decision," but "neither of these notions of jurisdiction goes to a court’s subject-matter jurisdiction." Id. ¶¶ 125 –27.

¶12 Subject-matter jurisdiction is a "special" type of jurisdictional concept, one that is "distinct from other notions of jurisdiction in that we require our courts to consider such issues sua sponte " and, unlike other notions of jurisdiction, we "do not allow the parties to waive or forfeit [subject-matter jurisdiction] from consideration." Id. ¶ 128. This distinction is "crucial," because "[i]f an issue is subject-matter jurisdictional, the general rules of finality and preservation are off the table," and that can "undermine the premises of efficiency, speedy resolution, and finality that generally undergird our justice system." Id.

¶13 Because subject-matter jurisdiction is "special" and "distinct" from other jurisdictional concepts, see id. , due to the fact that "parties can raise subject matter jurisdiction at any time during a proceeding, it makes sense to cabin the issues that fall under the category of subject matter jurisdiction," Johnson v. Johnson , 2010 UT 28, ¶ 10, 234 P.3d 1100 ; see also In re adoption of B.B. , 2017 UT 59, ¶ 129, 417 P.3d 1 (stating that "our law has been careful to cabin the notion of subject-matter jurisdiction"). In recent years, our supreme court has made a concerted effort to do just that, "routinely rebuff[ing] attempts by litigants to recast merits arguments as issues of subject-matter jurisdiction," and instructing trial courts that they must "guard[ ] against the faux elevation of a court’s failure to comply with the requirements for exercising its authority to the same level of gravity as a lack of subject matter jurisdiction." In re adoption of B.B. , 2017 UT 59, ¶ 130 n.14, 417 P.3d 1 (quotation simplified); see also Johnson , 2010 UT 28, ¶ 9, 234 P.3d 1100 (stating that "[t]he concept of subject matter jurisdiction does not embrace all cases where the court’s competence is at issue," and that "[w]here the court has jurisdiction over the class of case involved, judgment is not void on the ground that the right involved in the suit did not embrace the relief granted"); Chen v. Stewart , 2004 UT 82, ¶ 36, 100 P.3d 1177 (determining that the parties mischaracterized their claim as one grounded in subject-matter jurisdiction in a futile attempt to avoid waiver), abrogated on other grounds by State v. Nielsen , 2014 UT 10, 326 P.3d 645. In Johnso...