Riggs, In re

• Decision Date: 29 July 1980
• Parties: In re Joseph Ryan RIGGS, a Minor, Robert TERRAZAS, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Tommy Joe RIGGS and Ann Marie Riggs, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: Tennessee Court of Appeals

Page 461

612 S.W.2d 461

In re Joseph Ryan RIGGS, a Minor,

Robert TERRAZAS, Petitioner-Appellee, v. Tommy Joe RIGGS and Ann Marie Riggs, Defendants-Appellants.

Court of Appeals of Tennessee, Western Section.

July 29, 1980.

Certiorari Denied Feb. 23, 1981.

See 101 S.Ct. 1370.

James D. Todd, Jackson, and James B. Outman, Tucker, Ga., for defendants-appellants.

George L. Morrison, Jackson, Edwin M. Saginar, Atlanta, Ga., and Nordin F. Blacker, San Jose, Cal., for petitioner-appellee.

SUMMERS, Judge.

This suit was commenced in the Chancery Court of Madison County on July 26, 1977, by Robert Terrazas, the petitioner-appellee. On that date, the appellee filed a petition seeking a writ of ne exeat and a petition for writ of habeas corpus against Tommy Joe Riggs and Ann Marie Riggs, the defendants-appellants. Terrazas alleged that he was the natural father of an infant boy, Joseph Ryan Riggs, who had been adopted by the appellants in Georgia. Terrazas further alleged that the appellants were unlawfully detaining the minor child and that he was entitled to the possession and custody of the minor child.

Terrazas prayed that the writ of ne exeat be issued to keep the appellants from leaving this jurisdiction until the matter was settled. Terrazas prayed in the writ of habeas corpus that the court grant the custody of the child to him. Both writs were issued the day they were sought.

A hearing was held before the chancellor on August 7, 8, and 9, 1979. His opinion was released on September 21, 1979, finding that Terrazas should be awarded custody of the minor child and that pending further hearings and appeals, the minor child should be placed in the protective custody of the Tennessee Department of Human Services.

The appellants perfected an appeal to this court, which in turn entered a stay order which provided that the minor child remain with the appellants pending the appeal to this court on its merits.

The appellants have presented seven issues for review by this court:

1. Did the Trial Court err in failing to give full faith and credit to the Georgia adoption order?

2. Did the Trial Court err in affording Plaintiff a legal status which was not justified in fact or in law?

3. Did the Trial Court err in conducting a hearing on extraneous matters when the only issue before the Court was the habeas corpus question of the legality of the Defendant's holding of the child?

4. Did the Trial Court err in rendering an opinion without affording Defendants an opportunity to file an answer?

5. Did the Trial Court err in rendering an opinion and judgment while Defendants had motions pending which had not been acted upon by the Court?

6. Did the Trial Court err in admitting into evidence certain depositions taken by Plaintiff without Defendants having been given adequate notice of the taking of said depositions?

7. Will the ruling of the Trial Court destroy the institution of adoption?

In the fall of 1977, while he was in his final year of law school at Santa Clara University, Terrazas began dating Roneva Anderson, also a student at Santa Clara University, and they contemplated marriage. In May, 1978, Miss Anderson became pregnant and considered surrendering the child for adoption. However, Terrazas made it known to Miss Anderson on several occasions that he was desirous of taking the child and raising it.

In the fall of 1978, Terrazas was unable to determine the whereabouts of Miss Anderson. After it became clear to Terrazas that Miss Anderson did not want to marry him, he retained legal counsel. On November 29, 1978, he filed a petition under the Uniform Parentage Act of California seeking to establish a parent-child relationship with his unborn child. Numerous efforts were made to serve the mother with legal process in California. She was finally located and served on February 25, 1979. Unbeknownst to Terrazas, a petition for adoption had already been filed in Georgia by Mr. and Mrs. Riggs. Also during this time, Terrazas contacted several adoption agencies in an attempt to prevent the feared adoption of his child.

After breaking off her relationship with Terrazas, Miss Anderson counseled with Father Joseph Ryan, a Catholic priest, who introduced her to a Sister Julianna, resident of a Catholic convent in Reno, Nevada. Arrangements were made for Miss Anderson to live in Reno at the convent until her baby was born.

In December, 1978, Father Ryan telephoned Mr. and Mrs. Riggs in Georgia about the possibility of adopting the child who was soon to be born to Miss Anderson. On December 18, 1978, Mr. and Mrs. Riggs sent a check to Father Ryan for $2,000.00 to cover the perinatal expenses incurred by Miss Anderson. Later Mr. and Mrs. Riggs also paid the plane fare for Sister Julianna to transport the baby from Reno, Nevada, to Georgia.

Early in January, 1979, Terrazas contacted Father Ryan, who refused to reveal Miss Anderson's whereabouts although he was at the time arranging for the adoption of the unborn child. In fact, he told Terrazas he knew nothing about the matter.

Miss Anderson's baby was born on January 29, 1979. Masquerading as Jessica Stewart, she signed a release, surrender and affidavit denying any knowledge of the name and whereabouts of the child's biological father. As Jessica Stewart she also signed the child's birth certificate. Three days after the child was born, he was delivered to Mr. and Mrs. Riggs in Georgia by Sister Julianna.

On February 7, 1979, Mr. and Mrs. Riggs filed a petition for adoption in the Superior Court of Colquitt County, Georgia. The false affidavits of Miss Anderson, using the assumed name of Jessica Stewart, were attached to the petition. On March 1, 1979, a hearing was held in the Georgia court, and the natural father's rights to the child were terminated. The only evidence before the court on that date as to the father's identity was the false affidavit of the mother. The evidence showed that there was no attempt to verify the identity of the natural father. The Department of Human Resources of Georgia made a visit to the home of the defendants on March 7, 1979. Early in March, that same agency made its only contact with the mother, by telephone, whereupon the mother informed the social worker that she did not know the identity of the father.

Very soon after the parental rights of Terrazas were terminated in Georgia, Mr. Riggs found employment in Tennessee, and on March 17, 1979, signed an agreement to purchase a house in Jackson, Tennessee. The final hearing on the adoption was held in Georgia on April 12, 1979, and on the next day the appellants moved from Georgia to Tennessee.

After Miss Anderson was served with the California suit instigated by Terrazas, she denied having a baby, and a continuance was sought by her attorney for a medical examination. When the matter was finally heard in the California court on April 30, 1979, Terrazas was found to be the father of the minor child. As a result of this finding, the California court issued a restraining order against any placement of the child for adoption. It was at that hearing that Terrazas was informed that Miss Anderson had given birth to his son in Nevada, listing her name as Jessica Stewart, and that the child had been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Riggs in Georgia. Terrazas then had the minor child's birth certificate changed in Nevada to reflect the name of Joseph Robert Terrazas.

Terrazas then retained counsel in Georgia and filed an action to determine whether an adoption had taken place. The action was initially begun in Atlanta, and upon Terrazas' learning that the adoption proceedings had occurred in Colquitt County, Georgia, proceedings were commenced there. After proceedings were commenced in Colquitt County, it was learned that Mr. and Mrs. Riggs had moved to Madison County, Tennessee.

In April of 1979, Mr. and Mrs. Riggs learned of the California suit which had been instituted by Terrazas. Mr. and Mrs. Riggs took no action in this matter until they were served with the papers in this suit, which was commenced in Madison County, Tennessee.

The appellants rely heavily on the Tennessee Supreme Court case of Abernathy v. Chambers, 482 S.W.2d 129 (1972), as authority for the principle that the full faith and credit clause requires the Tennessee courts to accord res judicata effect to a final decree rendered by another state. We find, however, that in the Abernathy case the Tennessee Supreme Court first looked to the issue of whether the foreign (Mississippi) state court had jurisdiction. Before affording the foreign sister state judgment full faith and credit, the Tennessee Supreme Court determined that all essential parties to the Mississippi proceeding were, in fact, before the Mississippi court. Abernathy held that the Tennessee court was at liberty to see if questions of jurisdiction had been fully and fairly litigated, and finally decided, in the court which rendered the original judgment.

In a 1942 case, McAlhany v. Allen, 195 Ga. 150, 23 S.E.2d 676, 680 (1942), the Georgia Supreme Court refused to recognize a Tennessee adoption after finding a fatal infirmity in the Tennessee proceedings. In McAlhany, the Georgia court said:

(T)he Full Faith and Credit Clause of the Federal Constitution would not require that such decree of adoption be given effect in this state as against the father where he was not made a party in the adoption case, and was not served, and did not appear and plead, or otherwise waive service, or consent to such adoption....

We are not persuaded that Tennessee has no choice but to give full faith and credit to the order in Georgia granting adoption unless this court can find that the Georgia judgment was vitiated by a manifest fraud. We agree with the appellants that a final judgment in a sister state is ordinarily conclusive upon the merits in every other state, and we applaud the principle of comity; however, we are not obliged to give full faith and credit to any judgment...