Opinion ID: 1269966
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: ashby's paternity and custody order

Text: Before M.A.'s birth, Washburn attempted to contact Ashby by mail about the pending adoption. Washburn allegedly sent a letter to Ashby on January 8, 2004, but the record indicates that he never received a return receipt confirming that Ashby received the letter. Ashby claims that Washburn sent the letter to the wrong address and that he did not receive it until January 29, 8 days after M.A.'s birth. But Washburn also published notice of the birth, and under the statutes in effect at the time, Ashby had until February 12 to register. On January 30, the day after he received Washburn's letter, Ashby registered and filed for custody. On April 21, 2004, the Madison County Court held a custody hearing. The court's order stated that Ashby had timely filed his notice of intent to claim paternity and that he was the biological father of the child, and it granted him custody. At that time, Dyer contacted the Alabama ICPC office and informed it that under the at-risk placement agreement, the Blacks had to return M.A. to Nebraska. The Blacks refused. Ashby, armed with the custody order, went to Alabama to have it enforced. The Alabama court, however, eventually declined to enforce the custody order because Ashby had failed to include the Blacks as parties to the action as required by the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction and Enforcement Act [5] and Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act of 1980. [6] The Alabama court concluded that the Nebraska judgment was valid as to Ashby's paternity but not valid as to the custody determination. So it did not order the Blacks to return M.A. to Nebraska. [7] It concluded, however, that M.A.'s custody should be determined in Nebraska after Ashby included the Blacks as parties in the custody case. It also stayed the adoption proceedings in Alabama until that happened. The record fails to show that Ashby took any further action to obtain custody. And in February 2009, Ashby voluntarily relinquished his parental rights in a settlement with the Blacks. The settlement, however, reserved his claims in this suit filed in the Lancaster County District Court.