In re Adoption of DNT

• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Citation: In re Adoption of DNT, 843 So.2d 690 (Miss. 2003)
• Decision Date: 24 April 2003
• Docket Number: No. 2001-CA-01597-SCT.,2001-CA-01597-SCT.
• Parties: In the Matter of the ADOPTION OF D.N.T., a minor: C.T. and S.T. v. R.D.H. and C.A.H.

843 So.2d 690

In the Matter of the ADOPTION OF D.N.T., a minor: C.T. and S.T. v. R.D.H. and C.A.H.

No. 2001-CA-01597-SCT.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

April 24, 2003.

Lawrence Primeaux, Merdian, attorney for appellant.

George C. Williams, Quitman, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

CARLSON, Justice, for the Court.

¶ 1. Aggrieved by the Clarke County Chancery Court's dismissal of their complaint to revoke consent and for custody of minor child and its judgment granting a permanent adoption of the minor child to the adoptive parents, the natural mother and maternal grandmother of the adopted child have appealed to this Court seeking relief. Finding no error by the chancellor, we affirm.

FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS IN THE TRIAL COURT¹

¶ 2. D.N.T. (Diane),² born September 8, 1999, is the daughter of C.M.T. (Camille), born August 26, 1983. In January 1999, Camille, who was hardly unaccustomed to living in various places for short periods of time,³ became pregnant while living with D.W.P. (Dan) in Lufkin, Texas.⁴ After Camille became pregnant, she moved back to Yuma, Arizona, to live with her mother, S.T. (Sally); however, Camille soon returned to Texas in an effort to make amends with Dan and to stay with her father, C.R.T. (Curt). Within a few days after her sixteenth birthday, Camille gave birth to Diane in Llano, Texas,⁵ where she had been living with her father for about five months prior to Diane's birth. When Diane was born, her father (Dan) was living in Llano. Camille and Diane remained in Texas with Camille's father, for about two and a half months after Diane's birth, at which time Camille and Diane returned to Yuma, Arizona, on approximately November 17, 1999, to resume living with Sally.

¶ 3. Camille had received prenatal care in both Arizona and Texas, and she had relied on her mother for support during the pregnancy and after the birth of the child. Diane's father (Dan) never supported Diane and rarely called to check on the child. Dan and Camille never married, and Dan never took legal action to be recognized as Diane's father.

¶ 4. By going to a store in Yuma, Arizona, and purchasing a packet, Sally, Diane's maternal grandmother, established a "do-it-yourself" guardianship in Arizona, whereby Sally became the "guardian" of Diane. This guardianship, was established so that Diane could benefit from Sally's insurance coverage. These "do-it-yourself papers" were filed by Sally and Camille with the Yuma County Clerk's Office in October 2000. This guardianship was established without consultation with an attorney. Camille testified that she took this action because "I wanted a responsible adult to have guardianship of Diane and my mother could put her (Diane) on her insurance if she was listed as a dependent." When asked at the second hearing if the guardianship was established through the Arizona courts, Sally testified that the guardianship "was awarded by the court," but that she and Camille had purchased the legal packet from a store, completed the papers, and filed the papers with the court. From the totality of the record, as more fully discussed later in this opinion, we are able to conclude that a judge entered an order appointing Sally as Diane's guardian though no documentation appears in the record regarding the guardianship papers. This "guardianship" was still in effect when Camille and Diane came to Mississippi.

¶ 5. Camille and Diane left Arizona for Mississippi approximately one week before Christmas 2000, for the purpose of visiting Camille's father (Curt), who had by that time moved from Texas to Wesson, Mississippi. Camille stated that she wanted her father to "get to know his granddaughter." Camille testified that at the time she left Arizona, she planned to return Diane to Sally's home in Yuma, Arizona, in mid-January 2001, and that although she came to visit in Mississippi, she felt like she would "end up back in Arizona."

¶ 6. Camille stayed with her father for one week, but then she met C.A.H. and R.D.H. (Carol and Rick), on Christmas Day 2000, and Camille and Diane promptly moved in with Rick and Carol in Stonewall, Clarke County, Mississippi. Camille lived with Rick and Carol from Christmas 2000, through the time the adoption petition was filed in March 2001, and Camille relied on Carol for support. In addition, Carol's mother and Camille's father (Curt) lived together.⁶ Neither Camille nor Diane had ever been to Mississippi before, and Camille said it was "not necessarily" her intention to become a Mississippi resident. Instead, Camille supposedly came to Mississippi in hopes of finding temporary work as a tax secretary during tax season and to let her father spend time with Diane. Camille testified that she did not always stay with Rick and Carol at night, but that she was there during the day.⁷ While Camille was away at night, Carol would keep Diane. At the time of the chancery court hearing, Diane had lived continuously with Rick and Carol for several months, and Rick and Carol had fully supported her.

¶ 7. Around January 10, 2001, Carol helped Camille write a letter to a judge in Arizona to terminate the guardianship Sally and Camille had established. Camille testified she took efforts to terminate the guardianship "so Carol could adopt Diane." On the other hand, Sally testified she never intended to relinquish any rights over Diane when Camille went to Mississippi. The Arizona guardianship over Diane was judicially terminated on or about February 14, 2001.

¶ 8. On March 8, 2001, Rick and Carol filed in the Chancery Court of Clarke County, Mississippi, a sworn Complaint for Adoption, also signed under oath by Camille; however, on March 23, 2001, Camille filed an Objection to Proceedings, requesting the chancery court to "set aside, cancel and hold for naught any documents [she] signed or executed in anticipation of the [adoption] matter." Notwithstanding the objection filed by Camille, the chancellor entered a temporary judgment of custody in favor of Rick and Carol on April 2, 2001. On April 6, 2001, Camille and Sally, through counsel, filed a Complaint to Revoke Consent and For Custody of Minor Child, wherein they asserted, inter alia; (1) that Camille's joinder in the adoption proceeding was a nullity because (a) the chancery court lacked jurisdiction pursuant to the Mississippi Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), (b) Camille lacked the legal capacity to join in or commence any legal proceeding, and (c) Sally had not been joined as a party; and (2) that Camille should be allowed to withdraw and revoke her consent and joinder in the adoption complaint because (a) at the time of the execution of the adoption complaint and joinder, Camille was subjected to "undue influence, duress and intimidation," (b) Rick and Carol, in order to get Camille to sign the adoption papers, fraudulently misrepresented that after the adoption, they would allow Camille unlimited time with Diane and would not do anything to alienate Diane from Camille, (c) Camille believed that the same attorney was representing her and Rick and Carol, (d) Camille did not understand that a court could refuse to allow her to withdraw her consent to adoption, (e) her immaturity and inexperience caused her to be unable to comprehend the import of what she was doing when she signed the adoption consent, and (f) it was not in Diane's best interest for Camille to have her rights as natural mother permanently terminated.

¶ 9. After hearing oral arguments on April 25, 2001, on the sole issue of jurisdiction, the chancellor, on May 3, 2001, entered a detailed eleven-page Memorandum Opinion and Ruling on Jurisdiction, wherein she held, inter alia, that the Clarke County Chancery Court had jurisdiction in the case, pursuant to the UCCJA, and more specifically, pursuant to Miss.Code Ann. § 93-23-5(1)(c). The chancellor further held that the case was a contested adoption and that a Guardian ad Litem must be appointed; therefore, an order appointing a Guardian ad Litem was entered on May 11, 2001. See Miss.Code Ann. § 93-17-8. The case was set for trial on September 5, 2001.

¶ 10. As scheduled, the chancellor conducted a hearing on September 5, 2001, and immediately thereafter handed down her bench opinion which was reduced to a written "Bench Opinion and Judgment" signed on September 5, 2001, and filed on September 7, 2001. Based on the evidence presented, the chancellor held, inter alia, that Camille was not the victim of undue influence or fraud and granted the Miss. R. Civ. P. 41(b) motion offered, ore tenus, by counsel for Rick and Carol. A Motion for Relief Pursuant to Rules 59 and 60, Miss. R. Civ. P., was filed on September 13, 2001, wherein Sally and Camille renewed their motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction and averred that the Court's final judgment of September 7, 2001, did not include the ruling on the motion to dismiss for jurisdictional reasons. An order dated September 28, 2001, amended the final judgment by adding the following language to the bench opinion: "At the outset of trial in this case, Camille and Sally, by and through their attorney, renewed their motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction, pursuant to the Mississippi Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act. Having been fully advised in the premises, the Court finds that the motion is not well taken, and the motion is overruled." A Notice of Appeal was filed by Camille and Sally on October 5, 2001, a Designation of Record was likewise filed on October 5, 2001, and a Certificate of Compliance was filed on October 12, 2001.

¶ 11. Interestingly, the Judgment of Adoption was not filed until November 6, 2001, some thirty-two (32) days after the filing of the Notice of Appeal. The Judgment of Adoption was signed by the chancellor, and dated September 5, 2001 (the same day of the hearing and the signing of the "Bench Opinion and Judgment"), but with the notation "nunc pro tunc."⁸ While the chancellor most definitely had...