Summary
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed judgments terminating a father's parental rights in connection with stepfather adoptions. The court held that competent evidence supported findings of parental unfitness and that termination was in the children's best interests, and it rejected challenges concerning the sequence of findings and the possibility of an open adoption with the father's parental rights intact. The court concluded that Maine's adoption statutes did not authorize granting the adoptions without the nonconsenting father's consent or termination of his parental rights.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether competent evidence supported findings that the father was an unfit parent under the statutory termination-of-parental-rights criteria.
- Whether competent evidence supported the determination that termination of the father's parental rights was in the children's best interests.
- Whether the Probate Court committed obvious error by stating the best-interests finding before the parental-unfitness finding.
- Whether the Probate Court could authorize an adoption by the stepfather while leaving the father's parental rights intact and without his written consent.
Holdings
- The evidence supported the finding that the father was unwilling or unable to take responsibility for the children within a time reasonably calculated to meet their needs, and therefore supported termination of his parental rights on the unfitness ground.
- The trial court did not clearly err in finding that termination of the father's parental rights was in the best interests of each child.
- The trial court's placement of the best-interests finding before the parental-unfitness finding in its written judgments was not obvious error.
- The Probate Court could not grant the stepfather's adoption petitions over the father's objection while leaving the father's parental rights intact; because the father was a living nonconsenting parent, the court could either deny the adoption for failure to establish unfitness or terminate his rights if unfitness and the children's best interests were established.
Key quotations
“the constitution requires that “a trial court must find parental unfitness before it proceeds to consider the best interest of the children.”” (¶ 19)
“Limited by its statutory mandate, the Probate Court is left with two choices in the face of a nonconsenting parent: deny the petition for adoption because the petitioner has failed to prove that the nonconsenting parent is unfit or, if the petitioner has established that the parent is unfit and that adoption would be in the child’s best interest, terminate the nonconsenting parent’s parental rights, thereby obviating the need for the parent’s consent.” (¶ 23)
Factual background
The father and mother divorced in 2012, with the mother receiving primary residence and the father receiving contact rights. The father's contact with the two children declined beginning in 2015; he had not seen them since July 2016 and had no communication with them since May 2018, although the trial court found that the mother had wrongfully made contact difficult. Both children have significant developmental, genetic, behavioral, educational, and medical needs, and the stepfather consistently participated in their daily care and coordinated with their providers. The father had not attempted to enforce his contact rights or contact the children's schools or medical providers and had not contributed to their financial support.
Procedural history
The mother and stepfather petitioned to adopt the children, and the mother separately petitioned to terminate the father's parental rights after he objected to the adoption petitions. Following a one-day hearing, the Probate Court entered judgments terminating the father's parental rights. The father timely appealed without filing a motion for further findings or another post-trial motion. The Supreme Judicial Court of Maine affirmed.