GT v. Adoption of AET

• Decision Date: 05 January 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-2280,98-2280
• Citation: 725 So.2d 404
• Parties: G.T., Appellant, v. ADOPTION OF A.E.T., Appellee.
• Court: Florida District Court of Appeals

725 So.2d 404

G.T., Appellant, v. ADOPTION OF A.E.T., Appellee.

No. 98-2280

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Fourth District.

January 5, 1999.

Rehearing Denied February 9, 1999.

Lynn G. Waxman of Lynn G. Waxman, P.A., West Palm Beach, and Charlotte Danciu of Charlotte Danciu P.A., Boca Raton, for appellant.

Sharon P. Talbot of Law Offices of Sharon P. Talbot, P.A., Palm Beach, for appellee.

TAYLOR, J.

In this pending adoption proceeding under Chapter 63 of the Florida Statutes, G.T. ("the father") and M.T. ("the mother"), biological parents of the minor child, A.E.T., appeal from an order excusing their consent to the minor child's adoption because of abandonment. K.S., the appellee herein, is the prospective adoptive parent. A.E.T. has been in appellee's custody since his birth over four years ago. After a careful review of the record in this case, we conclude that there was substantial competent evidence to support the trial court's finding that both parents abandoned the minor child. Accordingly, we affirm the order excusing their consent to the adoption. We write primarily to address the position urged by the father that his failure to support and establish contact with the minor child does not constitute willful abandonment because he was unaware that he was the child's legal and biological father as a result of the mother's misrepresentations about paternity and his misunderstanding of the law regarding marital conception and birth.

This case, we observe, appears to be one of first impression in this state. It involves facts which may or may not be that unusual but present an issue upon which there is little or no direct decisional law in Florida. We begin with a summary of the facts, most of which are undisputed and carefully detailed in the trial court's extensive written order.

The mother and father were teenagers when they married in 1992 and bore their first son, Zachary. Soon after Zachary's birth, problems arose in the marriage and the couple separated. The father and son moved into the home of the father's mother. During this period of their separation, the mother began dating a man named "Eddie." She became pregnant and informed a friend, the appellee, that Eddie was the father of her unborn child.

Soon after the mother became pregnant with A.E.T., she and the father resumed their relationship and began living together again. After they reunited, the mother told the father that she was pregnant but that her pregnancy was the result of a relationship with another man. During the first seven months of the mother's pregnancy, the father lived on and off with the mother and contributed modestly towards her living expenses. Sometime around the eighth month, however, the couple separated for the final time and the father returned to his mother's home with Zachary. The expectant mother described herself during this period as alone, financially destitute, and emotionally distraught. Appellee felt sorry for the mother and helped her with her groceries, utility bills and transportation during and after her pregnancy. The mother's parents paid her medical bills and Medicare covered the hospital delivery costs.

Abandonment by the mother

A.E.T. was born on February 14, 1994. After A.E.T.'s birth, the mother moved in with her parents for a few days and then returned to the apartment that she shared with a 16-year old female friend. When A.E.T. was just four weeks old, the mother tried to "give" the baby to her teen-age roommate. However, her roommate declined, protesting that she was too young to care for an infant. Shortly thereafter, the mother took A.E.T. to the roller skating rink where appellee worked and requested appellee to keep A.E.T. According to the mother's roommate, the mother did not want A.E.T. and stated that she would "do what she had to do" and "would put him in the dumpster" if appellee did not take him. Appellee agreed to take A.E.T. and raise him on the condition that some medical tests be performed first and that the mother's family and husband agree to the arrangement.

Upon appellee's suggestion, appellee and the mother phoned the mother's aunt and the father. The father was advised of the plan to place A.E.T. with appellee. He disclaimed any responsibility for the child and advised them to do what they felt was necessary. That same day, appellee and the mother agreed to execute a written consent and, later, worked together to draft its terms and conditions. On March 18, 1994, the mother delivered A.E.T., along with his clothes and furniture, to appellee at her home. Later that day the mother and appellee met with a notary public and executed the consent in her presence. Before notarizing the consent, the notary read it to the mother and asked her "if she really wanted to do it." The mother responded affirmatively and did not appear upset about the transaction.

Notwithstanding provisions in the consent that "I [the mother] will have no visitation or any contact whatsoever from this day forth," there was an understanding between appellee and the mother that she could visit A.E.T. any time. In fact, after the placement, the mother visited A.E.T. 2-3 times per week for approximately one month. During their contact, the mother treated A.E.T. as if he were appellee's child and called him by the new name appellee had given him. After the initial visits during the first month, the mother voluntarily stopped visiting A.E.T. She ended all communication with him, moved to New Hampshire to be with her boyfriend, and did not attempt to visit A.E.T. again until three years later, in May of 1997.

The trial court noted that the mother did go to the authorities approximately one month after she placed A.E.T. with appellee in a "claimed" attempt to regain custody of A.E.T. On June 1, 1994 she filed a habeas corpus petition seeking the return of A.E.T. However, the court concluded that her actions were solely the result of family pressure and not of a "settled purpose to assume all parental duties." The mother's aunt and father testified that the placement of the child with appellee was done without their knowledge and that they were "aghast." At the behest of her aunt and/or her parents, the mother contacted the police, the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (HRS), and the state attorney. These agencies got involved and initiated various proceedings. The state attorney filed criminal charges against both the appellee and mother for illegal placement of a baby. The charges were later dismissed. HRS filed a petition for temporary shelter and a subsequent dependency petition, alleging that the child had been abandoned by the mother. However, HRS later voluntarily dismissed the dependency action, stating "No valid allegations of dependency exist in this case." HRS returned A.E.T. to appellee. The circuit court denied the mother's petition for habeas corpus, but proceeded with the appellee's counter-petition for adoption of A.E.T. A copy of the counter-petition for adoption was later served on the father by publication. The counter-petition was subsequently amended to allege abandonment by both parents.

Throughout all of these proceedings, the mother never visited A.E.T., made any attempts to visit him, nor initiated any form of communication with him for a period that spanned approximately four years. At the hearing on abandonment, she admitted confiding in appellee on several occasions that the only reason she was attempting to regain custody of A.E.T. was because of pressure from her family; she denied, however, that she was presently motivated by such concerns. The guardian ad litem who first visited the mother in 1994 characterized the mother as vague and "noncommittal" in her expressed interest in regaining custody of A.E.T. The trial court concluded that the mother abandoned A.E.T. and excused her consent to his adoption.

We first consider the mother's contention that the informal written adoption consent she executed was legally insufficient and involuntary pursuant to Chapter 63 of the Florida Statutes. Significantly, the trial judge specified in his written order that he did not rule upon the legal validity of the written consent. Rather, in determining whether the mother abandoned A.E.T., he considered the consent and the circumstances surrounding its execution as factors bearing upon her intention to "wilfully reject her parental obligations." Where, as here, a natural mother decides to give up her baby because of "generalized social and financial pressures" her decision is deemed to be voluntary provided that no one exerted coercion, duress or fraud to force her to do so. Matter of Adoption of Doe, 543 So.2d 741, 744 (Fla.), cert. denied, 493 U.S. 964, 110 S.Ct. 405, 107 L.Ed.2d 371 (1989). The record is devoid of any evidence of coercion or duress. The trial court's finding that the mother knowingly, voluntarily and intentionally relinquished permanent custody of the child is supported by competent substantial evidence in the record. Further, evidence of her conduct subsequent to signing the consent demonstrates that the mother abandoned the child shortly after his birth, openly renounced any parental rights in the child and exhibited little or no interest in the child during the first years of his life. The trial court found that the mother had the ability to support A.E.T., for at least part of the period subsequent to his placement with appellee, but that she did not make any provision for his support nor any effort to establish a relationship with him for over four years. There was sufficient clear and convincing evidence to support the court's conclusion "that [the mother] evinced a willful rejection of her parental obligations" and did not "evince a settled purpose to assume all parental duties."

We, therefore, affirm the order of the trial court finding abandonment by the mother and excusing her consent for purposes of adoption.

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