Opinion ID: 1142830
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: meaningful communication

Text: R.N.T. and M.I.G. were divorced in 1975. Despite the divorce the family continued to reside together in Fairbanks until September, 1976, when R.N.T. was transferred by his employer to Anchorage. M.I.G. and the two children remained in Fairbanks upon his transfer, but R.N.T. nonetheless maintained significant contact with his children, traveling to Fairbanks every other weekend to be with them and his former wife. M.I.G. and the two children moved to Anchorage later in 1976, and although separate residences were maintained, it appears that the family was once again united. R.N.T. and M.I.G. considered remarrying and buying a house, and they and the children were together almost every day. The family's living arrangements remained substantially the same until late June or early July 1978. At that time trouble developed between R.N.T. and M.I.G. over another man. M.I.G. took the children and moved back to Fairbanks, and except for a family vacation in Utah which failed to resolve the problems between R.N.T. and M.I.G., R.N.T. did not visit with his children again until December 10, 1978. This was the last time that R.N.T. would see his two children. When he refused that evening to give M.I.G. money to use in buying her Christmas presents to the children she became furious. The next day M.I.G. turned over to the police some gold that R.N.T. had stolen in 1975. This evidence led to R.N.T.'s arrest and incarceration from December 20, 1978 until February 26, 1980. R.N.T. attempted to communicate with his children while he was in prison. He wrote a letter to M.I.G. in March 1979 asking her to allow the children to write to him. M.I.G. took this letter to the District Attorney and told him that R.N.T. was bothering her. As a result, R.N.T.'s lawyer advised him to refrain from writing further letters to M.I.G. or his children. When he was released from prison, R.N.T. again attempted to communicate with his children. He sought permission from his parole officer to go to Fairbanks to see them. [2] His parole officer informed him that under no circumstances, not even to see his children, was he allowed to go to Fairbanks. The officer further informed R.N.T. that any communication between himself and the children would have to be through a third party. R.N.T. could think of only one person who could arrange such a communication  M.I.G.'s brother. However, the brother told R.N.T. that he had had no contact with M.I.G. and made it clear that he didn't want to become involved. R.N.T. was still living under the conditions of his parole at the time J.R.G. filed a petition for adoption in August 1981. At the adoption hearing the parties stipulated that there had been no meaningful communication between R.N.T. and his children since December 1978, the time of his incarceration. R.N.T. argued, however, that the failure to communicate over that period was justifiable. He contended that during his incarceration and parole constraints were imposed on him which effectively prevented any contact with his children. Having established the existence of those constraints, he argued that he had borne his burden of producing a justifiable cause for failing to communicate which J.R.G. failed to rebut by clear and convincing evidence. See D.L.J. v. W.D.R., 635 P.2d at 838. The superior court rejected these arguments. It concluded that R.N.T.'s incarceration and parole could not be used as a justification since they were both attributable solely to R.N.T.'s own conduct in committing the 1975 crime. Thus, the court determined that R.N.T. had failed to meet his initial burden of producing evidence of a justifiable cause for failing to communicate. This was error. Appellees seek to uphold the judgment below on factual grounds, arguing that R.N.T. could have communicated meaningfully while in jail and on probation, but did not try. They do not defend the legal proposition that the prevention of communication by incarceration may not be justifiable cause under the statute. We reject appellee's factually based contention. We also reject the legal proposition that inability to communicate caused by incarceration may not be justifiable cause. It is quite generally held that parental conduct which causes loss of a parent's right to consent to adoption must be wilful. Particular conduct brought on by force of circumstances, necessity, or misfortune does not ordinarily come within the statute. 2 C.J.S., Adoption of Persons § 61, at 483 (1972) (footnote omitted); see also In Re Adoption of A.J.N., 525 P.2d 520, 523 (Alaska 1974) (conscious disregard of [parent's] obligations required). The commentary to the Uniform Adoption Act, on which AS 20.15.040(a)(2) was modeled, makes it clear that the wilfulness requirement was intended to be continued in the Uniform Act. Uniform Adoption Act § 6 commissioner's note, 9 U.L.A. 27 (1979) (communication and support required when the parent is able to do so.). Those authorities which have considered the question have generally held that neglect of parental duties caused by imprisonment is not necessarily wilful and thus does not inevitably result in the loss of a parent's right to consent. Harden v. Thomas, 329 So.2d 389, 390-91 (Fla.App. 1976); Murphy v. Vanderver, 169 Ind. App. 528, 349 N.E.2d 202, 203 (1976); In re Adoption of Riggs, 10 Misc.2d 617, 175 N.Y.S.2d 388, 389-90 (N.Y.Cty.Ct. 1958); Elliott v. Maddox, 510 S.W.2d 105, 107 (Tex.Civ. App. 1974); In re Adoption of Jameson, 20 Utah 2d 53, 432 P.2d 881, 882 (1967); see State v. Grady, 231 Or. 65, 371 P.2d 68, 69-70 (1962); cf. Nada A. v. State, 660 P.2d 436, 439 (Alaska 1983) (impliedly holding that incarceration is not wilful conduct necessary to constitute abandonment.) Of course, imprisonment does not necessarily preclude a parent from communicating with his children. Where it does, however, the failure to communicate is properly considered non-wilful and thus justifiable cause. See Peyla v. Martin, 40 Ill. App.3d 373, 352 N.E.2d 407, 410-11 (1976) (admonition of parole officer not to pursue visitation and refusal to grant travel permits to parolee were factors that precluded finding of failing to maintain a reasonable degree of interest in child); In re Adoption of Herman, 406 N.E.2d 277, 280 (Ind. App. 1980) (Thus, it must be determined whether [the parent], though incarcerated, still maintained the ability to communicate with the minor child.). The circumstances of R.N.T.'s incarceration and parole clearly prohibited him from communicating with his children. To deny that these circumstances may act as a justification misreads former AS 20.15.050. In Matter of Adoption of K.M.M., 611 P.2d 84, 87-88 (Alaska 1980) we determined that this statute must be strictly construed in favor of the natural parent. There we found justification in the mere fact that it was emotionally traumatic for the natural father to see his children and former wife living with a man who had been the father's closest friend. Here the evidence of justifiable cause is much more substantial. R.N.T. was effectively prevented by the circumstances of his incarceration and parole from establishing meaningful communication with his children.