Court Opinion

ID: 9711113
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 04:24:37.814625+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:02.360524
License: Public Domain

*91MANDERINO, Justice,
dissenting.
I dissent. The majority acknowledges that the consent of a natural mother to the adoption of her child must be intelligent, voluntary and deliberate. The majority also acknowledges that the consent must be clear and unequivocal. The majority, however, fails to apply the very standards it enunciates.
The appellant, natural mother in this case, does not dispute that she signed a consent to adoption form less than two months before the final adoption decree, in the home of the natural paternal grandparents of the adoptee. She contends, however, that she was not informed of the consequences of that consent. Perhaps the most serious consequence of an adoption is the termination of parental rights which, among other things, takes away forever the natural parent's right to see the child.
The record in this case is completely barren of any evidence that the natural mother knew or was informed by anyone that she was giving up her right to ever see her child. There is no testimony that anyone ever told her this. The trial court made no finding of fact as to whether the natural mother knew the consequences of her consent to adopt. Indeed, the trial court made no findings of fact whatsoever in this case. Under these circumstances, how can it be said that the consent was a knowing and intelligent consent?
In other areas we have refused to accept the signing of a form alone as evidence indicating a knowing and intelligent signing. For example, we have held that a signed guilty plea is not knowing and intelligent if the person signing did not know the consequences of the signing. We have held that consents in open court, waiving a jury trial or waiving any trial, are not knowing and intelligent consents unless it is clear that the accused knows the consequences of what he is doing. In many areas of the law a signature is meaningless unless it is established that the person knew the consequences of the act.
*92In this case, the majority completely ignores the grave responsibility that the judicial branch has to insure that the giving up of a child is a knowing and intelligent act and that the parent is fully informed of the consequences of that act.
In nonfamily adoptions, where a child is to be adopted by persons not known to the natural parent, an inference may be drawn from the signing of a consent to adoption that the person signing must have known that the consequence of the adoption would be that the consenting parent would lose the right to ever see the child again. Such an inference, however, is totally unwarranted in a family adoption situation such as we have before us. In the absence of evidence that the consenting parent knew that the adoption would cut off the right to ever see the child again, there is no reasonable basis for inferring that the natural parent had knowledge of such consequences. In this case, since the child had been cared for and lived with the paternal grandparents most of the time, it may be reasonable to conclude that the natural mother considered that it would be in the best interests of her son that he be adopted by his grandparents. This is completely different from concluding that she knew that the grandparents would then have the right to stop her from ever seeing her child again.
Moreover, in this case, there is no doubt that the appellant’s waiver of her right to notice of the adoption proceeding cannot stand in the absence of any evidence indicating that the appellant knew that the consequences of her waiver of notice right would be a decree forever cutting her off from her child.
The majority overlooks and does not discuss the significant issue raised in this case. The issue is whether a signed consent to adoption is valid in the complete absence of evidence that the person knew that the legal consequences of the adoption would be to completely cut off the parent’s right to ever see the child again. The law should not be more solicitous when other rights are being waived than it is when a child is being taken from a parent forever.
*93This matter should be remanded to the trial court for a hearing to determine if the appellant knew the consequences of signing the consent form. If she did not, the adoption decree should be vacated.