Summary
The Colorado Supreme Court considered whether a parent's filing of parenting-time motions automatically precluded a finding of abandonment in a stepparent adoption proceeding. The court held that abandonment requires a fact-specific inquiry into the parent's intent during the twelve months preceding the adoption petition, based on the totality of the circumstances, and that the juvenile court need not await resolution of related parenting-time motions if it adequately considers them. The court reversed the court of appeals and remanded for an express determination of the parent's intent.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether a parent's filing of parenting-time motions precludes a finding of abandonment under section 19-5-203(1)(d)(II), C.R.S.
- Whether abandonment must be determined from the totality of the circumstances and the parent's intent during the twelve months preceding commencement of the adoption proceeding.
- Whether the juvenile court was required to delay the adoption proceeding until the dissolution court resolved the parent's pending parenting-time motion.
- Whether the juvenile court's abandonment determination could stand when it did not expressly determine the parent's intent during the relevant twelve-month period.
Holdings
- A parent's filing of parenting-time motions does not automatically preclude a finding of abandonment. The trial court must evaluate the totality of the circumstances, and no single circumstance controls as a matter of law.
- The abandonment inquiry focuses on whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the parent's intent during the consecutive twelve-month period immediately preceding commencement of the adoption proceeding was to abandon the child. Future intent after that period is not relevant to the abandonment determination.
- A juvenile court is not required to delay adoption proceedings until a dissolution court resolves a pending parenting-time motion, so long as the juvenile court adequately considers that motion as part of its abandonment determination.
- The juvenile court's order could not stand because, although it found abandonment, it did not expressly determine whether Father's intent during the relevant twelve-month period was to abandon the child. The case must be remanded for that determination, based on the existing record or, in the juvenile court's discretion, new evidence.
Key quotations
“The abandonment inquiry focuses on whether, under the totality of the circumstances, the parent's intent during the twelve months preceding the commencement of the adoption proceeding was to abandon the child.” (321)
“It was therefore error for the court of appeals to determine that a single circumstance—that is, the filing of the parenting-time motions—precluded a finding of intent to abandon, essentially as a matter of law.” (321-322)
“We hold that, as long as a juvenile court adequately considers the parenting-time motion as part of its abandonment determination, it is not required to defer its ruling in order to allow the dissolution court to resolve the motion.” (327)
Factual background
Father and Mother divorced after separating, and the child lived with Mother, who later married Stepfather. Father saw the child only a few times after separation, most recently in June 2006, and had no further contact, including cards, letters, or gifts, during the more than twenty-one months before the adoption petition was filed. Father filed two unsuccessful pro se contempt motions before the petition and a verified parenting-time motion forty-seven days after it was filed. The juvenile court found that Mother had not prevented visitation and that Father's lack of contact, despite knowing where the child was, constituted abandonment, but it did not expressly determine Father's intent during the relevant twelve-month period.
Procedural history
The juvenile court found that J.L.B. had abandoned the child and granted D.P.H.'s stepparent adoption petition. The Colorado Court of Appeals reversed, holding that J.L.B.'s parenting-time motions precluded a finding of abandonment and that the juvenile court should have delayed the adoption proceeding pending resolution of those motions. The Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals and remanded to the juvenile court for an express determination of abandonment intent under the applicable twelve-month period.
Remand instructions
Reverse the Colorado Court of Appeals and remand to the juvenile court to determine, under the totality of the circumstances, whether Father's intent during the twelve-month period preceding the filing of the adoption proceeding was to abandon the child. The juvenile court may rely on the existing record or, in its discretion, take new evidence, and must adequately consider the parenting-time motion without being required to await the dissolution court's ruling.