Hall v. Hall
| Decision Date | 16 April 1996 |
| Docket Number | No. 95-3107,95-3107 |
| Citation | 672 So.2d 60 |
| Parties | 21 Fla. L. Weekly D954 April Lynne HALL, Appellant, v. Bobby Joe HALL, Appellee. |
| Court | Florida District Court of Appeals |
An appeal from the Circuit Court for Okaloosa County. Jack Heflin, Judge.
Michael T. Webster and Curtis W. Brannon, Shalimar, for Appellant.
Bobby Joe Hall, pro se.
Appellant, the wife in this dissolution of marriage proceeding, seeks our review of a non-final order which vacated a previous temporary custody order designating shared custody of, and visitation with, the minor child who has lived in a parent-child relationship with both parties since his birth. We reverse.
The child who is the subject of this custody dispute was born February 28, 1991, in the Republic of the Philippines. The child's birth mother is a Philippine citizen; she was unmarried when the child was born. The record suggests that the biological father of the child was a member of the United States military. 1 When the child was born, the parties were living in the Philippines, where appellee/husband was on active duty with the United States Air Force at Clark Air Force Base. Before the child was born, the birth mother consented to the parties' adoption of the child. The parties were present in the delivery room for the child's birth, and took him from the hospital to their home when he was only three days old. He has been in their care and custody continually from that time until the trial court issued the order here at issue granting sole custody to the husband, and barring further contact between the wife and the child.
On April 3, 1991, the parties executed a joint petition for the adoption of the child. On April 4, 1991, the birth mother executed an affidavit of consent to the adoption, and a voluntary surrender of custody of the child to both parties. The husband testified that under Philippine law, foreign nationals are prohibited from adopting Philippine children. As a necessary step toward adoption of the child, a birth certificate was obtained which states that the husband is the father of the child, and a passport was issued for the child by the United States Embassy in the Philippines. This passport designates the husband as the father of the child.
The adoption petition was scheduled to be heard on June 11, 1991. On June 10, 1991, the parties and the child were relocated to Subic Naval Base, due to the impending eruption of Mount Pinatubo. Within a short period of time, the wife and child were transported back to the United States; the husband soon followed. Due to the parties' enforced departure from the Philippines, the adoption petition was never finalized.
In August 1994, the wife filed a petition for dissolution of the parties' marriage. She sought primary residential custody and shared parental responsibility of the child, who was then three and a half years old. At the hearing on the child custody issue, the husband asserted that his parental rights had been decided by the documents obtained in the Philippines. The trial court recognized the paternity of the child was in dispute in the dissolution action. After ascertaining that the parties had been sharing custody of the child since their separation, the trial court determined the specifics of their agreement and obtained their oral consent to a continuation of custody in accordance with their arrangement. Subsequently, the trial court issued an order dividing child custody between the parties in a manner which formalized the arrangement they had adopted. The temporary custody order stated that it was to remain in effect until the paternity issue was decided.
During the course of numerous pleadings and numerous hearings before the trial court, and in oral argument before this court, the husband asserted that he is the child's father, the wife had no right to custody of the child beyond that of a stepmother, and the wife had no right to contest his paternity of the child. 2 The husband further argued he should not be required to undergo testing to determine the paternity issue.
In April 1995, the husband filed a motion to modify the temporary child custody and visitation order entered November 23, 1994. The husband's motion for...
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D.M.T. v. T.M.H.
...upon execution of the written consent.”) (quoting Matter of Adoption of Doe, 524 So.2d 1037, 1041 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988)); Hall v. Hall, 672 So.2d 60, 62 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996) (“Under Florida law, the birth mother's written consent to the wife's adoption of the child is valid and irrevocable.”).......
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D.M.T. v. T.M.H.
...execution of the written consent.") (quoting Matter of Adoption of Doe, 524 So. 2d 1037, 1041 (Fla. 5th DCA 1988)); Hall v. Hall, 672 So. 2d 60, 62 (Fla. 1st DCA 1996) ("Under Florida law, the birthmother's written consent to the wife's adoption of the child is valid and irrevocable."). In ......
- Hall v. Hall