Court Opinion

ID: 9678283
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 06:15:46.299044+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:17:03.242638
License: Public Domain

Andree Layton Roaf, Judge, dissenting. The trial court set aside the final adoption order based primarily upon a finding that there had been a fraud practiced upon the court in the manner in which the two parental consents to the adoption had been executed. The other matters cited by the trial court do not rise to the level of fraud, and there was clearly no duress used in obtaining the consents. While it is appropriate that the trial court determine the credibility of the witnesses, it is troubling that the court apparently did not consider, nor does the majority mention, the fact that appellee, Denise Bush, began to fraudulently collect a social security check for the child of over $800/month when her husband died several days after they had signed the consents, that she continued to collect these checks for a number of months after the adoption was final, the post-decree modification to the adoption order that she procured providing for visitation with the child, and the fact that Mrs. Bush waited until almost a year after the decree was entered, and after the social security check was cut off, to contest the adoption. Mrs. Bush admitted that she and her spouse signed the consents but claims not to have read them or to have known what they were, even though she and her spouse had themselves adopted the child in question during the events that transpired in this case. This is incredible, as the forms were captioned in bold type “CONSENT TO ADOPTION AND RELINQUISHMENT OF PARENT AND CHILD RELATIONSHIP.” Because Mrs. Bush acknowledged that she had executed the form, I would reverse and remand.