Court Opinion

ID: 9790422
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:52:43.752707+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:29.445944
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Associate Chief Justice,
concurring and dissenting.
I concur in that part of the majority opinion which upholds the constitutionality of Utah Code Ann. § 78-30-4(3). I dissent from that part which holds that the acts of defendant L.D.S. Social Services constituted state action.
Decisions of the United States Supreme Court delineating when the acts of a private person or agency constitute state action do not support the majority’s conclusion in the instant case. In Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. 922, 102 S.Ct. 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d 482 (1982), the Court noted that its cases reflected a two-part approach to the question of when conduct which allegedly causes the deprivation of a federal right may be fairly attributable to the state:
First, the deprivation must be caused by the exercise of some right or privilege created by the State or by rule of conduct imposed by the State or by a person for whom the State is responsible.... Second, the party charged with the deprivation must be a person who may fairly be said to be a state actor. This may be because he is a state official, because he has acted together with or has obtained significant aid from state officials, or because his conduct is otherwise chargeable to the State. Without a limit such as this, private parties could face constitutional litigation whenever they seek to rely on some state rule governing their interactions with the community surrounding them.
457 U.S. at 937, 102 S.Ct. at 2753-54, 73 L.Ed.2d at 495.
Assuming that the first part of the Supreme Court’s approach is met in the instant case, it is clear to me that the second part is not met, i.e., the defendant who received the child from the mother for adoption may not fairly be said to be a state actor. In a case decided by the Supreme Court the same day as it decided Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., the Court provided the following illumination on the requirement of the second part:
The Court has concluded that the acts of a private party are fairly attributable to the state on certain occasions when the private party acted in concert with state actors. For example, in Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 155-156[, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 1607, 26 L.Ed.2d 142] (1970) ... [t]he Court concluded that the restaurant acted under color of state law because it conspired with the sheriff, a state actor, in depriving the white teacher of federal rights.
Similarly, Flagg Brothers, Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149[, 98 S.Ct. 1729, 56 *645L.Ed.2d 185] (1978), and Lugar, post, p. 922, 102 S.Ct. p. 2744, illustrate the relevance of whether action was taken in concert with a state actor. The issue in Flagg Brothers was whether a warehouseman could be sued under § 1983 because it sought to execute a lien by selling goods in its possession pursuant to § 7-210 of the New York Uniform Commercial Code. While the sale was authorized by a state statute, and hence appeared to be threatened under color of state law, the Court did not reach that issue. Instead, it concluded that the warehouseman’s decision to threaten to sell the goods was not “properly attributable to the State of New York,” 436 U.S., at 156, [98 S.Ct. at 1733, 56 L.Ed.2d at 193,] since no state actor was involved. ...
In Lugar, a lessee obtained an ex parte writ of attachment pursuant to a state statute, which was executed by a sheriff. The Court held that § 1983 applied because the involvement of the sheriff distinguished the case from Flagg Brothers. [457 U.S. at 941, 102 S.Ct. at 2756, 73 L.Ed.2d at 498.] The lessee thus acted under color of state law and the sheriffs involvement satisfied the state action requirement.
Rendell-Baker v. Kohn, 457 U.S. 830, 838-39 n. 6, 102 S.Ct. 2764, 2770 n. 6, 73 L.Ed.2d 418, 426 n. 6 (1982) (emphasis added). In that case, a private school whose income was derived primarily from public sources and which was regulated by public authorities was held not to have acted under color of state law for purposes of 42 U.S.C. § 1983 when it discharged certain employees.
In the instant case, petitioner contends that the acts of defendant constituted state action because
only the state can terminate parental rights and Utah’s statute invests private parties with the power to effect such a termination of the rights of an unwed father. The defendants, therefore, have been invested by the statute with a power reserved for the sovereign. When they exercise this power they are engaging in an action only the state can take and are, therefore, properly characterized as “state actors.”
This contention must fail because it is based on a faulty assumption. Defendant has not been given any power to terminate the father’s inchoate rights. That comes about by operation of law pursuant to a predetermined state statute, and not by any act or discretion of defendant. As the majority states, the statute is “self-operative.” Defendant is without power or authority to make any decision relative to the termination. Simply because the legislature has provided in Utah Code Ann. § 78-30-4(3)(b) that the placement of an illegitimate child by his mother with an adoption agency terminates the opportunity for the father to register his claim of paternity does not, without more, turn every adoption agency into a “state actor.” Unlike Adickes v. S.H. Kress & Co., 398 U.S. 144, 90 S.Ct. 1598, 26 L.Ed.2d 142 (1970), and Lugar v. Edmondson Oil Co., 457 U.S. at 922, 102 S.Ct. at 2744, 73 L.Ed.2d at 482, no state officer or employee was involved in the instant case. It is undisputed that defendant receives no state funding and the state has no control over the agency’s internal affairs. The cases simply do not support the theory that when a private person exercises a right or privilege granted by state law (such as to receive children for adoption), that person becomes a state actor. If that were so, every person licensed by the state in the various trades, occupations, and professions would become state actors. State action is not brought about by the sole fact that the legislature has coincidentally fixed the date the mother relinquishes the child to the agency as the termination date of the father’s right to register. Another date could have just as well been chosen by the legislature, such as the date of the child’s birth. The Supreme Court cases require much more of a nexus than is present in the instant case to produce “state action.”
In this conclusion, I am supported by our observation in Sanchez v. L.D.S. Social Services, 680 P.2d 753, 755 n. 2 (Utah 1984), that even if the adoption agency had a duty to inform the father of his right to *646register his notice of claim and the agency breached that duty, there would not be state action. That would be a much stronger set of facts than is found in the instant case, where it is not contended that defendant owed petitioner any duty. See also Benavidez v. Gunnell, 722 F.2d 615, 618 (10th Cir.1983), where a psychologist and an L.D.S. bishop reported to the police that two children had been kidnapped following placement by L.D.S. Social Services. The court held that this reporting to the police did not constitute state action although it triggered the arrest of the alleged kidnappers by the police.
I would hold that there was no state action here.