In re Adoption of M.K.B.B.

Summary

The Ohio Second District Court of Appeals affirmed judgments finding that the biological mother’s consent was not required for the adoption of her two children by their paternal great-aunt. The court held that the mother failed, without justifiable cause, to maintain more than de minimis contact with the children and failed to provide required maintenance and support during the year preceding the adoption petitions. The court concluded that the probate court’s findings were supported by the evidence and were not against the manifest weight of the evidence.

Holdings

1. Under former Ohio Revised Code section 3107.07(A), a parent's consent to adoption is unnecessary when the parent, without justifiable cause, fails to provide either more than de minimis contact or maintenance and support for the minor during the year immediately preceding the filing of the adoption petition.
2. Mother's three telephone calls with the children during the year preceding the petitions did not constitute more than de minimis contact.
3. Mother failed to establish justifiable cause for her failure to maintain more than de minimis contact with the children.
4. Mother failed, without justifiable cause, to provide the children with required maintenance and support during the year preceding the adoption petitions.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the probate court erred by finding that Mother failed, without justifiable cause, to have more than de minimis contact with the children during the year preceding the filing of the adoption petitions.
2. Whether the probate court erred by finding that Mother failed, without justifiable cause, to provide maintenance and support for the children during that one-year period.
3. Whether Mother's consent to the adoptions was therefore unnecessary under former Ohio Revised Code section 3107.07(A).

Disposition

affirmed