In re I.K.
| Decision Date | 27 October 2009 |
| Docket Number | No. 20080554.,20080554. |
| Citation | 2009 UT 70,220 P.3d 464 |
| Parties | In the Matter of the Adoption of I.K., a minor child. J.S., Appellant, v. P.K. and J.K., Appellees. |
| Court | Utah Supreme Court |
Clark R. Nielsen, Kathryn J. Steffey, Salt Lake City, for appellant.
Larry S. Jenkins, Richard J. Armstrong, Lance D. Rich, Salt Lake City, for appellees.
On Certification from the Utah Court of Appeals.
INTRODUCTION
¶ 1 In this direct appeal, Appellant J.S. seeks to challenge the adoption of I.K., his alleged daughter. We are asked to determine (1) whether Utah's adoption statute, specifically Utah Code sections 78B-6-120 to -122,1 violates J.S.'s due process rights as applied; (2) whether it was error for the district court, finding that J.S. did not comply with New Mexico law, to deny his motion to dismiss; and (3) whether the district court erred in determining that J.S. lacked standing to challenge the adoption. We hold that regardless of whether sections 78B-6-120 to -122 would violate due process as applied to J.S., the question is moot because he failed to meet the requirements of New Mexico law. Accordingly, the district court did not err by denying his motion to dismiss nor by determining that he lacked standing. As a result, we affirm the district court.
¶ 2 In January and February of 2007, J.S. (the Natural Father) and T.C. (the Birth Mother), residents of New Mexico, engaged in a physically intimate relationship, resulting in the pregnancy of the Birth Mother. Though the couple ended their relationship in February 2007, the Birth Mother contacted the Natural Father in March 2007 to inform him that she was pregnant and intended to have an abortion. The Natural Father objected to the abortion, but agreed to drive the Birth Mother to the abortion clinic. Once at the clinic, personnel allegedly informed the Birth Mother that she could not undergo the procedure due to problems with her medical records. The Birth Mother told the Natural Father that she would have someone else drive her when she returned to have the abortion and that she did not want the Natural Father to be further involved. However, without informing the Natural Father, the Birth Mother did not have an abortion and gave birth to Baby Girl C (now named and referred to as I.K.) in October 2007. Though a permanent resident of New Mexico, the Birth Mother delivered the baby in Colorado, a state with which the Birth Mother had no connections.
¶ 3 On November 11, 2007, without informing the Natural Father, the Birth Mother consented to adoption and relinquished the baby to Act of Love, a Utah adoption agency. The Birth Mother did not have any other contacts with the State of Utah. Act of Love placed I.K. with Utah adoptive parents, P.K. and J.K. (the Adoptive Parents), who filed a petition for adoption in Utah on November 13, 2007.
¶ 4 The Natural Father first received notice of I.K.'s birth on November 4, 2007, when he was contacted by Family Matters, a New Mexico adoption agency. The Natural Father refused to consent to the adoption of I.K. and contacted an attorney to protect his parental rights. Shortly after refusing consent to Family Matters, the Natural Father received a phone call from the Birth Mother, during which she asserted her determination to place I.K. for adoption. The Natural Father continued to object. Through his attorney, the Natural Father filed a petition to establish paternity and custody in New Mexico on November 20, 2007. The Natural Father also offered to provide financial support for I.K. in December 2007, which the Birth Mother refused. However, at no time did he file with the New Mexico Putative Father Registry.2
¶ 5 Unaware of the pending Utah adoption case, the Natural Father continued his paternity case in New Mexico. Only just before an emergency custody hearing on January 23, 2008 did he learn that the baby had been placed for adoption in Utah. Nevertheless, proceeding with his case, on February 12, 2008, the New Mexico court found the Natural Father to be the father of I.K. and awarded him temporary custody during the paternity action.
¶ 6 One week earlier, on February 6, 2008, Act of Love filed a Verified Petition to Determine Birth Father's Rights (Birth Father Petition) in Utah as a separate action from the adoption case. On February 26, 2008, the Natural Father filed, in Utah, a Verified Motion to Dismiss Adoption that requested custody and a Motion to Transfer and Consolidate the Birth Father Petition with the adoption case. The district court consolidated the cases, but on April 30, 2008, after hearing oral argument, denied the motion to dismiss the pending adoption. The district court found that the Natural Father had failed to "establish his legal rights in either Colorado, New Mexico or Utah before the birth mother executed her relinquishment" and had not offered any evidence "why he failed to do so or why it was somehow impossible for him to do so." The court also found that the Natural Father failed to file notice with the New Mexico Putative Father Registry as required by New Mexico law. The court treated the Natural Father's motion to dismiss as a request for intervention, which it denied due to lack of standing. In denying the motion to dismiss, the Utah court also rejected the Natural Father's argument that the New Mexico custody order should be given full faith and credit under the United States Constitution. The court concluded that full faith and credit was inappropriate because neither the Adoptive Parents nor Act of Love were named as parties and because it was a temporary, not final, order. It is from the final order denying the motion to dismiss the pending adoption that the Natural Father appeals.
¶ 7 "Constitutional issues, including questions regarding due process, are questions of law that we review for correctness." Chen v. Stewart, 2004 UT 82, ¶ 25, 100 P.3d 1177. We review the denial of a motion to dismiss for correctness, granting no deference to the district court. In re Adoption of B.T.D., 2003 UT App 99, ¶ 11, 68 P.3d 1021. We also review standing and intervention issues under a correctness standard. See In re Adoption of K.C.J., 2008 UT App 152, ¶ 7, 184 P.3d 1239.
¶ 8 The Natural Father seeks to enforce a parental right to contest the adoption of I.K. Under Utah law, an unmarried biological father must establish his parental rights by strictly complying with certain statutory requirements. See Utah Code Ann. §§ 78B-6-120(1)(f), -121(1) to (5), -122(1) (2008). If he fails to meet these requirements, the statute provides an alternative three-part method for establishing parental rights. First, the unmarried biological father must not have known, and "through the exercise of reasonable diligence could not have known, before the time the mother executed a consent to adoption or relinquishment of the child for adoption, that a qualifying circumstance existed." Id. § 78B-6-122(1)(c)(i)(A). A qualifying circumstance exists when between the time of conception and the date of the mother's consent to adoption or relinquishment of the child for adoption, (1) either the mother or child permanently or temporarily resided in Utah; (2) the baby was born in Utah; or (3) the mother intended to give birth to or place the baby for adoption in Utah or under Utah law. Id. § 78B-6-122(1)(a). Second, the unmarried biological father must, prior to the mother's consent to adoption or relinquishment of the child for adoption, have "fully complied with the requirements to establish parental rights in the child, and to preserve the right to notice of a proceeding in connection with the adoption of the child" of the state where the child was conceived or the last state where the father knew, or through reasonable diligence should have known, that the mother resided. Id. § 78B-6-122(1)(c)(i)(B). Finally, the father must demonstrate a "full commitment to his parental responsibilities." Id. § 78B-6-122(1)(c)(i)(C). If the unmarried biological father fails to "fully and strictly comply" with these requirements, he is "considered to have waived and surrendered any right in relation to the child, including the right to . . . consent, or refuse to consent, to the adoption of the child." Id. § 78B-6-122(2).
¶ 9 In this case, it is undisputed that the Natural Father did not comply with the first set of Utah's statutory requirements. Therefore, he seeks to establish his parental rights through the alternative method. Arguably, under the first prong, the Natural Father did not know of a qualifying circumstance prior to the Birth Mother's relinquishment of the baby for adoption. Neither the Birth Mother nor the baby ever resided even temporarily in Utah, the baby was not born in Utah, and the record reveals no indication that the Birth Mother intended to give birth to the baby in Utah. Although the Birth Mother did place the baby for adoption with a Utah adoption agency, the Natural Father did not become aware of this fact until just before January 23, 2008, more than two months after the Birth Mother relinquished the baby for adoption. For these reasons, the Natural Father asserts he met the first prong. However, we need not decide this issue because we find that he failed to satisfy the second prong. A failure at any stage of this alternative method for establishing parental rights is fatal to the Natural Father's appeal.
¶ 10 Under the second prong, the Natural Father had to comply with the law of New Mexico, where the baby was conceived. New Mexico law allows an unmarried biological father to establish his parental rights by initiating a paternity action. See N.M. Stat. §§ 32A-5-3(F)(4)(a)(1), -17(A)(5) (2008). The Natural Father initiated his paternity action in New Mexico on November 20, 2007, nine days after the Birth Mother relinquished the baby for adoption. This action clearly failed to comply with the Utah deadline. However, the Natural Father...
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