Court Opinion

ID: 9543741
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 16:48:49.298733+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:11:06.618760
License: Public Domain

*386CROCKETT, Justice
(concurring).
I concur with the prevailing opinion but add this observation: Section 78-30-4, U.C.A.1953, provides that a child
“cannot be adopted without the consent of its parents, * * * except that consent is not necessary from a father or mother who has been judicially deprived of the custody of the child on account of cruelty, neglect or desertion * *
Appellant urges that on the basis of the divorce decree and the 1948 proceeding supplementary to it that all of Mr. Walton’s parental rights were extinguished, so that his consent is not necessary and that he now has no standing to oppose the adoption. It is my opinion that the above quoted statute does not apply where the cruelty, desertion or neglect is proved against the spouse in a divorce proceeding.1 The adversary there is the spouse and the cruelty, desertion or neglect is primarily as to the other spouse, even though such facts may be shown as to the children or the home incidentally. A husband, for instance, may fail to meet and disprove such issue as to his spouse or the home, whereas both the facts and the proof might be quite different if the direct accusation were cruelty, desertion or neglect of the children themselves.
I believe the statute referred to was only intended to cover situations where the parent has been judicially deprived of the custody of the child on account of cruelty, neglect or desertion of the child in a proceeding wherein the issue was as to such treatment of the child itself,2 *387for example, one in the interest of neglected, deserted or dependent children before the juvenile court,3 but that where one spouse has merely been awarded custody in a divorce action, such statute has no application.

See Bell v. Krauss, 169 Cal. 387, 146 P. 874; In re Metzger, 114 Misc. 313, 186 N.Y.S. 269. As to requirement of notice of hearing on judicial deprivation of parental rights, see 1 Am.Jur. 644 ff.; 24 A.L.R. 424; 76 A.L.R. 1081.

Some statutes distinguish between a divorce action and a proceeding wherein a parent’s fitness to have the custody of his child is directly in issue. Idaho Code, § 16-1504 (1948); N.Y.Dom.Rel.Law, § 111, McKinney 1941; see Iowa Code Annotated, § 600.3; Cal.Civ.Code, § 224 (Deering 1941).

 55-10-30 U.C.A.1953; See 55-10-5 & 55-10-32 U.C.A.1953.