Manzanares v. Byington (In re Adoption Baby B.)

Decision Date15 June 2012
Docket NumberNo. 20090740.,20090740.
Citation308 P.3d 382
PartiesIn the Matter of the ADOPTION OF BABY B., a minor child. Robert Manzanares, Appellant, v. Brandon S. Byington and Julissa N. Byington, Appellees, Carie Terry, Intervenor.
CourtUtah Supreme Court

OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE

Jennifer D. Reyes, Dale M. Dorius, Brigham City, for appellant.

Larry S. Jenkins, Lance D. Rich, Brinton M. Wilkins, Salt Lake City, for appellees.

David J. Hardy, Salt Lake City, for intervenor.

AMENDED OPINION *

Justice LEE, opinion of the Court:

¶ 1 Robert Manzanares challenges the district court's order terminating his parental rights in his biological daughter, “Baby B.” The district court held that Manzanares's consent to the adoption of Baby B. was not required under Utah law. It based this conclusion on a finding that Manzanares either knew or through “reasonable diligence” could have known of at least one of several “qualifying circumstances” defined by Utah law.

¶ 2 We find the district court's conclusions to run counter to a proper understanding of the statute and to be unsupported by the evidence. We accordingly reverse, after clarifying the standards that govern under the Adoption Act and under our prior cases.

I

¶ 3 In the summer of 2007, Robert Manzanares and Carie Terry conceived a child in Colorado. Manzanares communicated regularly with Terry regarding the pregnancy, and he provided some financial support both before and after the birth of the child. The anticipated date of the child's birth was late March 2008.

¶ 4 Terry ended her relationship with Manzanares in August 2007. Despite the split, Manzanares attempted to maintain contact with Terry by e-mail. Manzanares repeatedly told Terry that he wanted to raise the child and would do so alone if necessary. Terry, in contrast, consistently expressed her desire to place the child for adoption.

¶ 5 In November 2007, Terry asked a Colorado adoption agency to contact Manzanares, requesting that he sign papers consenting to the adoption. Manzanares refused, indicating that he would actively oppose any proposed adoption.

¶ 6 On January 11, 2008, Terry informed Manzanares by e-mail that she was going to Utah for a short visit with her sick father, but that she would return to continue discussions regarding adoption. Terry's e-mail message was as follows:

I will be flying to Utah to visit my father in Feb[ruary] for a week (maybe a little longer, it depends on how he/things are). Then it will be back to work to finish up the club's construction before I take time off at the end of March.... [I]n April I will be willing to sit down and talk with you about your reconsideration to consent for adoption[;] otherwise this will be a long process and it will benefit no one, especially this baby.

The district court found Terry's e-mail to be “misleading and that the e-mail in general was intended to create the false impression that she would stave off any decisions about adoption until she returned to Colorado.” In reality, the court found, she intended to visit Utah to make preparations for a return in late March to deliver the child in Utah.

¶ 7 Five days later, on January 16, 2008, Manzanares filed a paternity action in Colorado, seeking to enjoin any adoption proceeding. Manzanares's petition detailed his perception that Terry wished to place the child for adoption in Utah. Manzanares stated that he was filing the petition

prior to the child's birth because he has serious and founded concerns that, although the unborn child will not be legally available for adoption pursuant to [Colorado law], [Terry] plans to surreptitiously make the child available for adoption immediately upon his or her birth. [Terry] has repeatedly asserted her intention to give the child up for adoption via telephone and e-mail, and continues to pressure [Manzanares] to authorize an adoption, referring to him as a “chromosome donor.”

Based on his “serious and founded concerns,” Manzanares asserted that Terry “will flee to Utah, where she has family, to proceed with an adoption.” He also alleged a need to “establish immediate jurisdiction in Colorado, where the parties live and where the child was conceived, prior to the child's birth.”

¶ 8 Terry filed a verified response on February 12, 2008. She acknowledged that Manzanares was the biological father of the unborn child and that she was a resident of Colorado, but denied Manzanares's allegations that she intended to surreptitiously give the child up for adoption in Utah, asserting that such allegations call for a “legal conclusion.” Instead, Terry asked the Colorado court to “deny [Manzanares] parental rights and responsibilities once [the] baby is born, for the best interest of the baby,” and to “allow adoption proceedings” in Colorado “upon [the] baby's birth for the best interest of the baby.”

¶ 9 Also on February 12, Terry filed a motion to continue a hearing set for February 20, 2008, asking that the hearing be postponed until late March 2008. In this motion, Terry indicated that she had informed Manzanares and his counsel of her upcoming visit to Utah. Terry's motion to continue was denied.

¶ 10 On February 14, 2008, Terry traveled to Utah for the stated purpose of visiting her sick father. The purported purpose of the trip soon took a turn in a different direction. On February 16, 2008, Terry's brother and sister-in-law, Brandon and Julissa Byington, signed a petition for the adoption of Terry's baby in Utah. Terry also began exploring hospital and midwife options, presumably in preparation for the birth of the baby in Utah. Manzanares apparently had no knowledge of any of these developments at this time.

¶ 11 In the meantime, unpersuaded by Terry's denial of her intent to put the baby up for adoption in Utah, Manzanares filed a response in the Colorado action on February 15, 2008, in which he asserted that Terry “is planning to give birth in Utah and place the parties' unborn child up for adoption.” Manzanares further alleged that Terry “plans to drive herself and her six-year-old daughter to Utah at some undetermined point in the future, while pregnant,” and that there was a “likelihood that she will flee the State of Colorado ... to make the parties' unborn child available for adoption.” Despite his concerns, Manzanares did not take action at this point to assert his parental rights in Utah.

¶ 12 While in Utah, Terry gave birth to her child (Baby B.) on February 17, 2008, approximately six weeks premature. At a later evidentiary hearing, Terry indicated that it was not her intention in coming to Utah in February to give birth to the child. On February 19, 2008, the Byingtons filed their adoption petition in the Third District Court. A relinquishment hearing was scheduled for the next day before Judge Hilder.

¶ 13 February 20 was also to be the day the Colorado court held its hearing on Manzanares's paternity and injunction action. Terry, who was still in Utah following the birth of Baby B., called the Colorado court and indicated that she would not be at the hearing. She gave as her reason for not attending the hearing that she was out of town visiting an ill relative. Terry did not inform the court or Manzanares that she had given birth to the child. Nor did she divulge that she was appearing at 8:45 a.m. that day before Judge Hilder to give her consent to the adoption of the child by her brother and sister-in-law. In light of Terry's absence, the Colorado court agreed to continue the hearing until March 5, 2008. Believing Terry to still be pregnant, the court appointed a guardian ad litem for the child.

¶ 14 That same morning at 8:45 a.m., just fifteen minutes before the scheduled Colorado hearing, Terry executed a consent to adoption in Utah before Judge Hilder. Terry did not inform Judge Hilder of the Colorado proceeding.

¶ 15 On February 24, 2008, Terry returned to Colorado. The next day, Manzanares became aware that Terry was no longer pregnant. Manzanares immediately began calling Colorado hospitals in an attempt to locate the child, but he could not find her. Manzanares next called the Byingtons, who indicated only that Manzanares would be contacted by counsel. The Byingtons did not inform Manzanares of their adoption petition.

¶ 16 On February 26, 2008, Manzanares filed an emergency motion with the Colorado court. The court held hearings on February 27, 29, and March 3, 2008. Manzanares and Terry were both present at those hearings. The Colorado judge granted Manzanares's petition for paternity and signed a final order of paternity on March 3, 2008. The judge also ordered that Manzanares's name be listed on Baby B.'s birth certificate, a potentially significant act under Utah law.1

¶ 17 On March 4, 2008, Manzanares filed in Utah a motion to dismiss the Byingtons' adoption petition. The district court (Judge Faust) scheduled a two-day bench trial, to begin July 28, 2008. At trial, Terry testified of her multiple efforts to keep Manzanares in the dark regarding her plans to give birth to the baby and give her up for adoption in Utah. Although she asserted that she hatched the plan to give the baby up for adoption to her brother and sister-in-law in Utah as early as October or November of 2007, Terry testified that she could not “recall” whether she had informed Manzanares of her plans. Judge Faust interpreted her testimony to mean that she “admitted [that] she never advised Mr. Manzanares that she intended to place the child for adoption with her brother and sister-in-law, and that she was intending to do it in Utah.” He also noted that “neither the Byingtons [n]or Ms. Terry told [Manzanares] specifically what her adoption plans were.” Terry also testified that although she made Manzanares aware of her desire to give the baby up for adoption almost from the beginning of the pregnancy, she never told him that she wanted to place the child with a Mormon family. Yet Manzanares apparently inferred a desire on Terry's part to place the baby in such a family, based on the...

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