Court Opinion

ID: 9554017
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 19:39:31.069756+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:32:48.495741
License: Public Domain

DE MUNIZ, P. J.,
concurring.
I agree with the majority that the trial correctly determined that the petition for adoption must be dismissed and that child must be returned to her mother. As the majority correctly notes, mother is a necessary party to the proceeding, and her consent is a jurisdictional prerequisite to the adoption. 160 Or App at 45. The majority is also correct that the certificate of irrevocability and waiver in this case did not meet the statutory prerequisites and thus was ineffective. Id. at 47. Mother revoked her consent to the adoption and, for the reasons stated in the majority, was not estopped from doing so. Id. at 50-51. However, none of those issues need be addressed in the present case, because the petition for adoption must be dismissed for a more basic reason.
As the majority explains, the critical first question under the relevant provision of the Uniform Child Custody *53Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA) is whether the child has “a significant connection with the state” of Oregon. ORS 109.730(1)(b). Child was bom on July 4,1996, in Arkansas and lived in that state until March 11, 1997. Child was brought to Oregon on March 11, 1997, and the adoption petition was filed on March 17, 1997. A child’s “significant connection” with a state is measured from the date that the adoption petition is filed. State ex rel Torres v. Mason, 315 Or 386, 848 P2d 592 (1993). Child’s only connection with Oregon was that she was in the state for the six days before the adoption petition was filed. By comparison, the child was bom in Arkansas, spent the first nine months of her life in Arkansas, and was the subject of a paternity proceeding in Arkansas. Moreover, during the six days in which the child was supposedly developing her “significant connection” with Oregon, her mother and her family in Arkansas were frantically trying to get her back, by contacting the Arkansas lawyer who facilitated the placement of the child with appellants, by hiring an Arkansas lawyer, and by reporting her kidnaping to the Arkansas police.
In Torres, a child was bom in Washington, lived there for five years, and was the subject of a custody adjudication in that state. 315 Or at 388. The child’s mother consented to the child’s adoption, and the adoptive parents brought the child to Oregon one month before the adoption proceedings were commenced. Id. The court stated that, “[u]nder the facts of this case, one month is not a sufficient passage of time to develop a significant connection under ORS 109.730(l)(b).” Id. at 393. In Stubbs v. Weathersby, 320 Or 620, 622, 892 P2d 991 (1995), a child was bom in Washington and lived the first eight months of her life there. The child was in Oregon with prospective adoptive parents for three months before an adoption petition was filed. The court stated that, when that petition was filed, “Oregon did not have jurisdiction under the UCCJA. As of that date, Child had resided in Oregon for only three months.” Id. at 627 n 4. The court went on to state that, “[t]o establish ‘significant connection’ jurisdiction, ‘[t]here must be maximum rather than minimum contacts with the state.’ Comment, UCCJA § 3, 9 ULA, part I, 144-45. Physical presence of the child in this state is not alone sufficient to establish jurisdiction. ORS 109.730(2).” Id. (Emphasis added.)
*54Nothing in the record of this case makes it distinguishable in any material way from Torres or Stubbs. Child was present in this state for only six days before the adoption petition was filed. If one month and three months in Torres and Stubbs respectively were not enough, certainly six days is not enough to establish a “significant connection” under virtually identical circumstances. Child did not have a “significant connection” with the State of Oregon at the time the adoption petition was filed. Under the UCCJA, the petition for adoption must be dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.