P.H. v. C.S. (In re B.H.)

• Decision Date: 16 September 2020
• Docket Number: No. 20190560,20190560
• Citation: 474 P.3d 981
• Parties: In the MATTER OF the ADOPTION OF B.H., a person under eighteen years of age P.H. and A.D., Respondents, v. C.S., Petitioner.
• Court: Utah Supreme Court

474 P.3d 981

In the MATTER OF the ADOPTION OF B.H., a person under eighteen years of ageP.H. and A.D., Respondents,

v.C.S., Petitioner.

No. 20190560

Supreme Court of Utah.

Heard April 10, 2020

Filed September 16, 2020

Jessica S. Couser, Holladay, Benjamin K. Lusty, Salt Lake City, for respondents

Julie J. Nelson, Salt Lake City, Lisa B. Lokken, Cottonwood Heights, for petitioner

Justice Petersen authored the opinion of the Court, in which Chief Justice Durrant, Associate Chief Justice Lee, Justice Himonas, and Justice Pearce joined.

On Certiorari to the Utah Court of Appeals

Justice Petersen, opinion of the Court:

INTRODUCTION

¶1 This case involves an interstate adoption. At the time of the child's birth, the child's mother (Mother) was a Montana resident and gave birth to the child there. Mother chose to place the child for adoption with two Utah residents, the Respondents (Adoptive Parents). Because the adoption involved an interstate placement of the child, Mother and Adoptive Parents were required to comply with the Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children (ICPC). UTAH CODE §§ 62a-4a-701 to -711.

¶2 Mother and Adoptive Parents followed the ICPC process. However, on a required ICPC request form, Mother did not list the Petitioner (Father) as the child's father, even though he was her husband at the time and therefore the child's legal father. Mother and Father had been separated for quite some time, and she believed he was not the child's biological father. On the request form, she listed as the child's father the man she believed to be the biological father.

¶3 Adoptive Parents filed an adoption petition in Utah district court. After taking temporary custody of the child in Montana, they returned with the child to Utah. They soon learned that Mother might still be married to Father, and they served him with notice of the adoption petition. Father successfully intervened in the proceeding and sought custody of the child. Adoptive Parents petitioned to terminate Father's parental rights within the adoption proceeding. In the meantime, a genetic test revealed that Father was not only the child's legal father, he was the child's biological father as well.

¶4 The district court held a bench trial and concluded that Father had abandoned the child and was an unfit parent. The court terminated his parental rights and then finalized the adoption. Father appealed.

¶5 Father argued in the court of appeals that the district court lacked jurisdiction over the termination proceeding under the Utah Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act (UCCJEA). UTAH CODE §§ 78B-13-101 to –318. Father also argued that Mother's failure to include him on the ICPC request form invalidated the adoption. The court of appeals rejected both arguments. But it set aside the adoption decree because it did not state that the requirements of the ICPC had been complied with, as required by the Adoption Act.¹ Accordingly, the court of appeals remanded to the district court for the court to address this insufficiency.

¶6 We granted Father's petition for certiorari. We affirm.

BACKGROUND²

¶7 Mother and Father, both residents of Montana, were married in 2008. They eventually separated. Mother planned to file for divorce but had not yet done so when she learned she was pregnant. She was unsure who the biological father was, but she believed it was likely a man named D.G. She ultimately decided to place her child for adoption with Adoptive Parents, who are Utah residents. At the time of the adoption petition, Mother was legally married to Father.

¶8 Adoptive Parents filed a petition for adoption in Utah district court. The child was born in Montana four days later. Adoptive Parents traveled to Montana and were at the hospital within hours of the birth.

¶9 Because the adoption would involve placement of the child across state lines, the parties to the adoption were required to comply with the ICPC. Mother completed ICPC form 100A, titled Interstate Compact on the Placement of Children Request (request form). Notably, on the request form Mother identified D.G. as the child's father. Both Mother and D.G. voluntarily relinquished their parental rights.

¶10 Mother appointed Adoptive Parents as temporary guardians. Once the child was discharged from the hospital, Adoptive Parents took custody of the child. They stayed for a few days in a Montana hotel before returning to Utah with the child. They moved for temporary custody in the Utah district court in which they had filed the adoption petition. The court granted the motion, effective as of the child's date of birth.

¶11 Around this time, Adoptive Parents learned that Mother might still be married. They quickly sent notice of the adoption proceedings to Father. Father timely moved to intervene in the case. And the district court granted the motion.

¶12 While the adoption proceeding was pending in Utah, Father filed for divorce in Montana and listed the child "as a child of the marriage." The Montana court ordered genetic testing of Father and the child pursuant to Montana law. The genetic test revealed that Father was the child's biological father.

¶13 Adoptive Parents petitioned to terminate Father's parental rights within the Utah adoption proceeding, pursuant to Utah Code sections 78B-6-112³ and -133 of the Utah Adoption Act (Adoption Act). The district court held a bench trial on the termination petition. But the court paused before issuing its ruling and asked the parties to brief whether the court had jurisdiction to terminate Father's parental rights in light of his Montana residency.⁴

¶14 Adoptive Parents argued that the district court had subject matter jurisdiction over the termination proceeding pursuant to the Adoption Act because the termination was "for the purpose of facilitating the adoption of the child." (Citing UTAH CODE § 78B-6-112(1) ).

¶15 In response to the district court's briefing request, Father contested the court's subject matter jurisdiction for the first time. He asserted that jurisdiction was governed not by the Adoption Act but by the UCCJEA. And he argued that under the UCCJEA, Montana was the child's home state and should have jurisdiction over the termination proceeding. Father also asserted that because his name was not on the request form, the placement did not comply with the ICPC. According to Father, this was a jurisdictional defect.

¶16 The district court did not explicitly rule on the parties’ briefing. But it ultimately exercised jurisdiction over the termination proceeding. It ruled on the merits of the termination petition, finding that Father had abandoned the child and was an unfit parent due to his alcohol abuse, drug addiction, and extensive criminal history, among other things. The court then finalized the adoption.

¶17 In the adoption decree and the accompanying findings of fact and conclusions of law, the district court did not explicitly conclude that the requirements of the ICPC had been met, as required by the Adoption Act. See id. § 78B-6-107(1)(a). However, the district court did make some findings relevant to ICPC compliance, including that "[t]he pre-placement and post-placement adoptive evaluations have been filed with the Court, and they confirm that the adopting parents are fit to parent [the child]" and "Mother's Relinquishment and ICPC forms from Montana have been filed with the court." The court concluded that "[t]he requirements of [the Adoption Act] have been met."

¶18 Father appealed. He argued that "Utah cannot terminate a parent's rights in the context of an adoption without that court having acquired jurisdiction to do so under the UCCJEA." In re Adoption of B.H. , 2019 UT App 103, ¶ 16, 447 P.3d 110. As the court of appeals explained, "Father contends that, under these facts, jurisdiction under the UCCJEA is a prerequisite to jurisdiction under the Adoption Act." Id.

¶19 The court of appeals rejected this argument. It noted that the UCCJEA explicitly states that it does not govern adoption proceedings. Id. ¶ 17. And it concluded that the Adoption Act "expressly confers subject matter jurisdiction to terminate parental rights for the purpose of facilitating an adoption." Id. ¶ 12 (citing UTAH CODE § 78B-6-112(1) ).

¶20 Father also asserted that the adoption was invalid because Mother failed to comply with the ICPC when she did not list him as the child's father on the request form. The court of appeals agreed that this was a material deficiency, but it concluded it was not a jurisdictional defect. In re Adoption of B.H. , 2019 UT App 103, ¶ 28, 447 P.3d 110. The court noted, however, that the Adoption Act requires that a final decree of adoption state that the ICPC "ha[s] been complied with." Id. ¶ 26. Because the district court failed to make such a conclusion, the court of appeals set aside the decree. Id. ¶ 30. It remanded to the district court for additional factfinding regarding ICPC compliance. Id. It also stated that, if necessary, Adoptive Parents could "still undertake steps to comply with the ICPC prior to reinstating the adoption decree." Id. ¶ 27 n.7.

¶21 Father petitioned for certiorari, which we granted. We exercise jurisdiction under Utah Code section 78A-3-102(3)(a).

ISSUES AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶22 The questions before us are: (1) whether the court of appeals erred in concluding compliance with the UCCJEA is not a prerequisite to a termination of parental rights within an adoption proceeding and in concluding the requirements of the UCCJEA would have been met in this case if it applied, and (2) whether the court of appeals erred in remanding for a determination of compliance with the ICPC.

¶23 "On certiorari, this court reviews the decision of the court of appeals for correctness, giving no deference to its conclusions of law." State v. Baker , 2010 UT 18, ¶ 7, 229 P.3d 650.

ANALYSIS

¶24 Father argues that the court of appeals erred in concluding that the UCCJEA did not apply to the termination petition and the district...