Court Opinion

ID: 9578172
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:42:24.27159+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:25:01.617385
License: Public Domain

Atkinson, Presiding Justice,
dissenting. There can be no rights under a claim baséd on virtual adoption of a child unless there has been a breach of a valid contract to adopt, and the contract to adopt must bé established by clear and convincing proof so as to leave no reasonable doubt as to its existence. But *34to establish such a contract it is not essential that the phraseology of the verbal agreement between the parties be established by direct evidence. Proof of a contract is required in order to prevent fraud. But to require proof of the phraseology of the verbal agreement would be a harsh rule, and would in many cases deprive the child of its rights. There is no rule of law requiring such strict proof to establish a contract. The general rules of evidence apply to actions on contracts; and, where the question at issue is the existence or non-existence of a contract, this is a question of fact for the jury. A contract to adopt may be established by the acts, conduct, and statements of the parties. See 2 C. J. S. 396, § 26 (a); Kay v. Niehaus, 298 Mo. 201 (249 S. W. 625); Roberts v. Roberts (Mo.), 223 Fed. 775; Bland v. Buoy, 335 Mo. 967 ( 74 S. W. 2d, 612); Roberts v. Sutton, 317 Mich. 458 (27 N. W. 2d, 54); Evans v. Kelly, 104 Neb. 712 (178 N. W. 630); Anderson v. Anderson, 75 Kan. 117 (88 Pac. 743, 9 L. R. A. (NS) 229); Edson v. Parsons, 155 N. Y. 555 (50 N. E. 265).
Acts of the adopting parents may illustrate the agreement more surely than witnesses who attempt to repeat the substance of conversations which they listened to many years before. 1 Am. Jur. 634, § 29.
In the instant case, there was a complete and absolute surrender of the infant child by her father (her mother being dead), which took place many years prior to the present issue, and the parties to the agreement are dead. The acts, conduct, admissions, and declarations of the parties, when considered along with the facts and circumstances as disclosed by the evidence, were sufficient to authorize the jury to conclude that beyond a reasonable doubt there was a contract to adopt. The evidence has every element essential to establish a fact by the law of circumstantial evidence.