Opinion ID: 2632240
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 12

Heading: The expansive manner in which the majority opinion applies the concept of emergency jurisdiction undermines the subject matter jurisdictional requirements for adoption and termination proceedings set forth in the Oklahoma Adoption Code.

Text: ¶ 5 Seeking a basis upon which the trial court might exercise subject matter jurisdiction over the proceeding to terminate Father's parental rights, the majority opinion concludes that the Oklahoma court correctly assumed emergency jurisdiction under the Adoption Code. The basis for emergency jurisdiction can be found at § 7502-1.1(A)(4) of the Code and permits the exercise of jurisdiction if both: the minor and the prospective adoptive parent are physically present in this state, and the child has been abandoned or it is necessary in an emergency to protect minor because the minor has been subjected to or threatened with mistreatment or abuse or is otherwise neglected; The emergency provision of the Adoption Code is clearly designed to allow a court to assume jurisdiction when a child with no significant connection to the state is abandoned or endangered in Oklahoma. ¶ 6 The emergency jurisdiction provision in the Adoption Code does not provide a basis for Oklahoma to assume jurisdiction over the proceeding to terminate Father's parental rights. First, Birth Mother appeared in the Tulsa County District Court on March 9, 1999, and allowed the court to terminate her parental rights. On the same day, the court granted temporary custody to the adoption agency. The record on appeal does not establish that the prospective adoptive parent were physically present in Oklahoma when the child-placing agency assumed custody of the child. [4] Without the prospective adoptive parents physically present in the state at the time the custody order was issued, the trial court had no basis to assume emergency jurisdiction. [5] ¶ 7 Second, no true emergency exists. When a child is placed for adoption through a child-placing agency, an abandonment or emergency due to the child's pre-placement circumstances has been resolved by the placement itself. A child placed with a child-placing agency is not a child left without provision for reasonable and necessary care or supervision. ¶ 8 Finally, if the notion of emergency jurisdiction is applied in a such an expansive manner, it will effectively eviscerate any subject matter jurisdictional requirements for adoption and termination proceedings. The mere placing of a child with an adoption agency in Oklahoma becomes sufficient to vest our courts with jurisdiction over the adoption, even though Oklahoma has no connections to the child or the prospective adoptive parents. A birth mother from any state in the nation may now travel to Oklahoma with prospective adoptive parents and place a child with an agency for adoption in Oklahoma. Because she is deemed to have abandoned her child, the courts of this state may assume emergency jurisdiction and then proceed to terminate the parental rights of the father no matter how attenuated or non-existent his connection with this state. [6] ¶ 9 The concept of emergency jurisdiction should be narrowly construed. In referring to the emergency jurisdiction provision under the former Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act, [7] this Court has stressed that the provision is reserved for extraordinary circumstances, and it must not be misused to defeat the purposes of the act, . . . Holt v. District Court, 1981 OK 39, 626 P.2d 1336, 1345. [8] As applied by the Court in this case, the emergency jurisdiction provision undermines the policy of the Oklahoma Adoption Code which favors adoption jurisdiction in the state with the most substantial evidence about the prospective adoptive family. By defining emergency jurisdiction so expansively, the court tears a large hole in the act and opens the possibility that Oklahoma will become an adoption mill for out of state adopters with little or no connection to this state who may wish to invoke favorable Oklahoma law regarding termination of parental rights or adoption.