2005 MT 145 ANALYSIS
2005 MT 145 In Re Adoption of CWD and CDD
1. Natural parents were married then divorced. District Court adopted only an interim parenting plan at the time of the divorce. No order was ever entered requiring either parent to pay child support, although the mother was the primary caretaker of the child under the interim plan.
2. Divorce final in 2001. Almost immediately, mom enters common law marriage with another man.
3. Mom and stepdad petition for adoption by stepdad and termination of natural dad’s parental rights. Then a month later mom and stepdad solemnize their marriage
4. District Court found the natural dad unfit because he had failed to pay child support for an aggregate of one year. The Supreme Court affirmed.
5. The Supreme Court, citing In re Adoption of C.R.N., 1999 MT 92, 294 Mont. 202, 979 P.2d 210, stated that, “The termination of parental rights involves a fundamental liberty interest and, consequently, an order purporting to terminate parental rights must be supported by clear and convincing evidence.”
6. Dad had a job for part of the time and before that he was a student with GRANTS AND LOANS plus a part time job. Thus he had the ability to support his children.
7. The standard in determining whether dad had the ability to support the children is based on him having the ability to pay for his own support only to the extent of the bare necessities. Here even while dad was going to school, his loans and grants provided those bare necessities. The part time job was extra income that could have been used to support the children.
1. Natural parents were married then divorced. District Court adopted only an interim parenting plan at the time of the divorce. No order was ever entered requiring either parent to pay child support, although the mother was the primary caretaker of the child under the interim plan.
2. Divorce final in 2001. Almost immediately, mom enters common law marriage with another man.
3. Mom and stepdad petition for adoption by stepdad and termination of natural dad’s parental rights. Then a month later mom and stepdad solemnize their marriage
4. District Court found the natural dad unfit because he had failed to pay child support for an aggregate of one year. The Supreme Court affirmed.
5. The Supreme Court, citing In re Adoption of C.R.N., 1999 MT 92, 294 Mont. 202, 979 P.2d 210, stated that, “The termination of parental rights involves a fundamental liberty interest and, consequently, an order purporting to terminate parental rights must be supported by clear and convincing evidence.”
6. Dad had a job for part of the time and before that he was a student with GRANTS AND LOANS plus a part time job. Thus he had the ability to support his children.
7. The standard in determining whether dad had the ability to support the children is based on him having the ability to pay for his own support only to the extent of the bare necessities. Here even while dad was going to school, his loans and grants provided those bare necessities. The part time job was extra income that could have been used to support the children.
posted by Corbin Howard at 5:22 PM
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