Court Opinion

ID: 9715604
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 06:10:00.127707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:36.139109
License: Public Domain

TODD, J.,
dissenting:
¶ 1 I join in the Dissenting Opinion of my distinguished colleague, the Honorable Justin M. Johnson. I write separately to emphasize the impact of the Majority’s decision on the children at issue in this case.
¶ 2 I am convinced that the trial court has discretion to decree the adoption in cases such as this under the Adoption Act (28 Pa.C.S. § 2901).11 I am equally convinced that, contrary to the Majority’s characterization of “Appellants’ attempt at establishing a de facto family” (Majority Opinion, at 742), Appellants already have established a real family, albeit one that does not meet the traditional definition accorded by society. Appellants have been in a committed relationship for over seventeen years. In an effort to do what is best for their children BA.F. and C.H.F., the twin boys they have co-parented since their birth in 1997, they have sought to formalize the boys’ relationship with the biological mother’s partner through their adoption action, and to provide for the boys’ future security by vesting them with the legal rights and benefits of adoption. These benefits, which the Majority by its decision herein has decreed shall not be obtainable, include the legal protection of the children’s existing familial bonds, their rights to financial support from two parents instead of just one, rights to inheritance from each parent and rights to obtain other available dependent benefits, such as health care insurance and Social Security benefits, from either parent. No legal mechanism other than adoption can offer such protection to these children, and yet the Majority finds that it cannot reach a best interest of the children analysis. With this conclusion, I respectfully disagree.
¶ 3 To the contrary, I agree with Appellants’ assertion that the focus of an adoption is not the parents’ gender or relationship, but the children’s best interest. Despite the legislative mandate that “any individual” may adopt or be adopted, 23 Pa.C.S. §§ 2311-2312, the Majority’s analysis precludes an entire class of children and parents from the Act’s reach.
¶ 4 In my view, the learned trial court abused its discretion when it dismissed Appellants’ Petition for Adoption without holding a hearing in order to determine whether good cause has been shown to allow the adoption to proceed. If the proposed adoption is demonstrated to be in the best interest of the children, I do not believe this Court should prevent it from taking place.
¶ 5 As counsel for Appellants so aptly argued before this Court, unlike the typical domestic relations case involving acrimonious disputes in fractured families, this appeal presents an unopposed adoption in a happy and intact family. Here, both parents have raised the children since their births, have financially supported them, loved them, taken them to church, and educated them. Under the circumstances presented, I must respectfully dissent from the Majority’s holding that Ap*752pellants may not, through the vehicle of adoption, both legally parent them.
¶ 6 The Courts of Common Pleas of at least fourteen counties in Pennsylvania have permitted such second-parent adoptions in over one hundred cases. Our Court’s decision today, in effect, will deny hundreds of other children throughout our Commonwealth the legal benefits of parenthood.
¶ 7 Appellate courts in other states that have been called upon to interpret equally broadly-written adoption statutes have recognized the benefit to the child in permitting second-parent adoptions. See, e.g., In re Jacob, 86 N.Y.2d 651, 636 N.Y.S.2d 716, 660 N.E.2d 397 (1995); In re M.M.D. & B.H.M., 662 A.2d 837 (D.C.App.1995); In re Adoption of Two Children by H.N.R., 285 N.J.Super. 1, 666 A.2d 535 (1995); In re K.M. and D.M., 274 Ill.App.3d 189, 210 Ill.Dec. 693, 653 N.E.2d 888 (1995); Adoptions of B.L.V.B. and E.L.V.B., 160 Vt. 368, 628 A.2d 1271 (1993); Adoption of Tammy, 416 Mass. 205, 619 N.E.2d 315 (1993).
¶ 8 In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court summarized the benefits of such adoptions in Adoption of Tammy, supra, as follows:
Adoption will not result in any tangible change in Tammy’s daily life; it will, however, serve to provide her with a significant legal relationship which may be important in her future. At the most practical level, adoption will entitle Tammy to inherit from [the second parent] Helen’s family ... and from Helen ..., to receive support from Helen, who will be legally obligated to provide such support, to be eligible for coverage under Helen’s health insurance policies, and to be eligible for social security benefits in the event of Helen’s disability or death. Of equal, if not greater significance, adoption will enable Tammy to preserve her unique filial ties to Helen in the event that Helen and Susan [the biological mother] separate, or Susan predeceases Helen. As the case law and commentary on the subject illustrate, when the functional parents of children born in circumstances similar to Tammy separate or one dies, the children often remain in legal limbo for years while their future is disputed in the courts.... Adoption serves to establish legal rights and responsibilities so that, in the event that problems arise in the future, issues of custody and visitation may be promptly resolved by reference to the best interests of the children within the recognized framework of the law.
Adoption of Tammy, 619 N.E.2d at 320-21 (citations omitted).
¶ 9 In this case, the Majority’s interpretation of the Adoption Act will not further the interests of these children by preventing this adoption. This decision will not change the everyday reality of the children’s lives, their living arrangements or the parties’ parenting practices. It will, however, deny the children the benefits of parental recognition, stability and future security.
¶ 10 I conclude that permitting second-parent adoption may significantly advance the welfare of these children, and of many others like them, and, that such an adoption is not inconsistent with Pennsylvania law. For these reasons, I respectfully dissent from the decision of my esteemed colleagues.
¶ 11 Judge KELLY and Judge JOHNSON join this dissenting opinion.

. I do not restate herein the legal analysis and citations to authority which support this conclusion as they have Seen exhaustively addressed in Judge Johnson’s Dissenting Opinion, which I have joined.