Szemler v. Clements

• Decision Date: 04 March 1974
• Citation: 214 Va. 639,202 S.E.2d 880
• Parties: Viktoria Annaliese SZEMLER and Tibor Szemler v. Wilton R. CLEMENTS and Ilse Frieda Clements.
• Court: Virginia Supreme Court

Page 880

202 S.E.2d 880

214 Va. 639

Viktoria Annaliese SZEMLER and Tibor Szemler v. Wilton R. CLEMENTS and Ilse Frieda Clements.

Supreme Court of Virginia.

March 4, 1974.

I. J. Crickenberger, Arlington, Va. (Peter Heidenberger, Washington, D.C., Crickenberger & Moore, Arlington, Va., Lambert, Furlow, Elmore & Heidenberger, Washington, D.C., on brief), for appellants.

F. Mather Archer (Potter & Archer, on brief), for appellees.

Before SNEAD, C.J., and I'ANSON, CARRICO, HARRISON, COCHRAN, HARMAN and POFF, JJ.

COCHRAN, Justice.

Wilton R. Clements, a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy, and Ilse Frieda Clements, his wife, filed a petition in the trial court on May 21, 1970, for the adoption of Mrs. Clement's niece, Petra Sebisch, an infant. Petra's mother, Viktoria Annaliese Sebisch, filed a petition in December, 1970, opposing the adoption. Subsequently she married Petra's putative father, Tibor Szemler, who, by order entered November 4, 1971, was permitted to become a party to the petition in opposition to adoption.

After considering the evidence, some taken by deposition in West Germany and some heard Ore tenus, the chancellor entered an interlocutory order on September 22, 1972, approving the adoption of Petra by the Clementses, subject to the probationary period required by law and to the provisions of the final order. We granted the Szemlers this appeal.

Petra was born in Frankfurt, West Germany, on May 17, 1968, while her mother was married to Alfred Sebisch. Beginning in 1968, the mother corresponded with her sister, Ilse Clements, who was then living in Virginia, with reference to adoption of Petra.

The Sebisches were divorced on February 14, 1969, and the Magistrate's Court of Frankfurt on January 30, 1970, ruled that Petra was not the legitimate child of Alfred Sebisch. Guardianship of the child was awarded to the Frankfurt Youth Commission for purposes of establishing paternity, asserting support claims, and determining inheritance rights. During the spring of 1970 Petra lived in her mother's custody, supported by welfare, under poor conditions.

In February, 1970, Ilse Clements went to Germany and visited Petra's mother and another sister. On March 26, 1970, the mother executed a consent for the Clementses to adopt Petra, and on April 12, 1970, the Clementses brought Petra to their home in Springfield, Virginia, where the child has since resided.

On April 24, 1970, the mother executed a document purporting to revoke her consent to the adoption, but no notice of the revocation was communicated to the Clementses prior to the filing of their petition on May 21, 1970. In June, 1970, the mother's attorney in Germany wrote to Lieutenant Commander and Mrs. Clements that the mother intended to marry Petra's father and wished the return of her child. In November, 1970, the Frankfurt Youth Commission consented to the proposed adoption by the Clementses.

On February 19, 1971, Tibor Szemler formally acknowledged that he was Petra's father, and on March 8, 1971, he married her mother. Thereafter, the District Court of Frankfurt ruled that Petra had become legitimate by the marriage of her parents and that her mother's previous consent to the adoption was invalid under German law for lack of proper authentication. That court also denied the motion of the Frankfurt Youth Commission to substitute the Commission's consent to the adoption in place of parental consent withheld by the Szemlers. The Clementses were not parties to the proceeding in Germany.

Petra has made progress since coming to live with the Clementses. They are fit and proper persons and have provided an excellent home for the child.

The chancellor, having made the foregoing findings of fact, concluded that Tibor Szemler is Petra's father; that the mother had executed a valid consent to the adoption, which consent she had subsequently revoked; and that 'by cogent and convincing evidence it is the best interest of the child' that she be adopted by the Clementses. The order of adoption, entered pursuant to the findings of fact and conclusions of law which were set forth in the chancellor's opinion letter, recited that the Clementses were suitable persons to adopt the child and that her 'welfare and best interests . . . will be promoted by this adoption . . ..'

In Virginia, adoption is governed by Code §§ 63.1--220 through 63.1--238 (1973 Repl. Vol.). Code § 63.1--226, relating to the entry of an interlocutory order of adoption, provides in pertinent part:

'If, after considering (the commissioner's report) the court is satisfied that all of the requirements of this chapter have been complied with, that the petitioner is financially able to maintain adequately and is morally suitable and a proper person to care for and train the child, that the child is suitable for adoption by the petitioner, and that the best interests of the child will be promoted by the adoption, it shall enter an interlocutory order of adoption . . ..'

The requirements pertaining to consent for adoption are found in Code § 63.1--225. ¹ This statute provides that adoption may be granted only upon the consent of parties specified in subparagraphs (1), (2) or (3), or upon a finding under subparagraph (4) that consent has been withheld contrary to the best interests of the child or is unobtainable.

The trial court correctly found that the requirements of Code § 63.1--225 had been satisfied. Since Petra was illegitimate at the time the petition for adoption was filed, only the mother's consent was required under subparagraph (2) of the statute. See Malpass v. Morgan, 213 Va. 393, 397, 192 S.E.2d 794, 798 (1972). Cf. Harmon v. D'Adamo, 195 Va. 125, 129, 77 S.E.2d 318, 320 (1953), where under the predecessor statute, Code § 63--351 (1950), we held that, although the mother of an illegitimate child had consent to the adoption, the trial court was without jurisdiction to order adoption when the parents had married prior to entry of the final decree and the father had not consented to the adotion. The parent language of Code § 63.1--225(2), which apparently was designed to change the Harmon rule concerning the consent of the father of an illegitimate child, was added by Acts 1954, c. 489.

The chancellor found that Petra's mother had executed a consent to the adoption, valid under Virginia law, that was not revoked until after the petition for adoption had been filed. We find no error in that ruling, which was fully supported by the evidence. The mother's revocation of her consent was ineffective to divest the court of jurisdiction, which had attached as of the date of filing the petition for adoption. Having revoked her consent, however, Petra's mother was not precluded from opposing the adoption.

The dispositive question for our determination is whether the chancellor erred in finding that the adoption was in Petra's best interests, a condition precedent to entry of an interlocutory order under Code § 63.1--226. The Szemlers, relying on Judd v. Van Horn, 195 Va. 988, 81 S.E.2d 432 (1954), argue that there is a legal presumption that custody with the natural parents will serve the best interests of the child, and that the burden rests on those resisting the parental right of custody to rebut this presumption by clear, cogent and convincing evidence that the parents are unfit. See Wilkerson v. Wilkerson, 214 Va. 395, 397, 200 S.E.2d 581, 583 (1973). Since there is little evidence that the Szemlers are unfit parents at this time, they assert that the Clementses have not met their burden of proof under Code § 63.1--226.

We do not agree with the Szemlers' assessment of the burden of proof imposed upon the proponents of adoption. We hold that the presumption in favor of parental custody is rebuttable by proof that the requirements of Code § 63.1--225 have been met as of the date of filing the petition for adoption. Having satisfied the provisions of that statute, theproponents of adoption are entitled to an interlocutory order under Code § 63.1--226 if the trial court, after hearing the evidence of both the proponents and the opponents of the adoption, finds by a preponderance of the evidence that the proposed adoption would be in the child's best interests.

There is ample authority to support this construction of our adoption statutes. In adoption cases we have repeatedly held that the welfare of the child is the paramount consideration and that the technical rights of the parents may be disregarded if the child's welfare would best be served by denying custody to the parents. Malpass v. Morgan, Supra, 213 Va. at 399, 192 S.E.2d at 799; Forbes v. Haney, 204 Va. 712, 133 S.E.2d 533...