Opinion ID: 2382615
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: The private investigator's fee

Text: ¶ 41 In regards to the $13,000.00 fee for the private investigator, § 7505-3.2 does not list fees for a private investigator as a permissible expenditure in connection with an adoption, and the district court did not determine that this adoption involved unusual circumstances necessitating the services of a private investigator. According to the April 23, 2008 affidavit of the prospective adoptive parents, they had an agreement with the private investigator, [14] but they did not submit the agreement as evidence nor did they set forth the unusual circumstances that necessitated the private investigator's services. ¶ 42 According to his affidavit and a letter detailing his work in the case, the private investigator investigated the biological father for seventeen months, from July of 2006 through November of 2007, and tracked the whereabouts of the birth mother for six months from July through December of 2006. These purported adoption-related investigations were conducted even though the prospective adoptive parents had custody of Baby Boy A in another state, the birth mother had already twice consented to the adoption of her minor child and twice relinquished her parental rights before the district court, the birth mother and/or her attorney were participating in the adoption proceedings during the time she was being tracked by the private investigator, and the biological father and/or his attorney were participating in the adoption proceedings during the time the private investigator physically tracked and photographed both the biological father and his wife and placed GPS units on their vehicles. Further, the biological father had also relinquished his parental rights for some six months of the investigation. The record on appeal does not indicate any adoption-related need for the private investigator's physical surveillance of the birth mother and the biological father and his wife and the electronic tracking of the vehicles driven by the biological father and his wife, nor does it show that the private investigator contributed in the least to the adoption of Baby Boy A by these adoptive parents. ¶ 43 The statute, § 7505-3.2, does not specifically authorize the payment of costs and expenses of a private investigator, and the appellate record does not reveal that the district court determined there was a need for a private investigator due to unusual circumstances in this adoption in accordance with § 7505-3.2(B)(4). The $13,000.00 expenditure for a private investigator does not appear to have any genuine connection to the adoption. These are facts, however, that should have been determined by the trial court as the finder of facts. In the absence of an order of the district court authorizing the private investigation of the biological mother and father of the minor child in this adoption case based upon a finding of unusual circumstances, on remand, the district court must disapprove the $13,000.00 expenditure and order reimbursement to the adoptive parents [15] in accordance with § 7505-3.2(A)(1).