ALBA CALDERON, APPELLANT,
v.
D'AMARIS TORRES, APPELLEE
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In this adoption case, the Florida appellate court reversed a trial court's grant of visitation rights to a natural mother who sought to set aside a final adoption seven years after it became effective. The court held that Florida law strips natural parents of all parental rights, including visitation, upon finalization of adoption, and that courts lose authority to modify adoptions one year after finalization.
The trial court lacked authority to grant visitation rights to the natural mother because: (1) courts lose statutory authority to modify final adoptions one year after finalization, and (2) natural mothers lose all parental rights, including visitation rights, when an adoption becomes final under Florida law.
[1] A trial court loses authority to vacate or modify a final adoption order after one year has elapsed from the date the adoption became final.
[2] A natural mother loses all parental rights, including visitation rights, to a child once an adoption becomes final.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“the trial court by statute lost any authority to vacate or modify the order of adoption, by granting visitation rights to the natural mother or otherwise, after one year had elapsed from the date the adoption became final”
Establishes the one-year statutory limitation on trial court authority to modify final adoptions
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceD'Amaris Torres gave birth to a child out of wedlock on August 21, 1973. Alba Calderon (Torres's mother) legally adopted the child in 1977. In October…
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[*1041] PER CURIAM.
This is an appeal from a non-final order entered in an adoption proceeding. The order under review denies a motion to vacate an order previously entered which granted child visitation rights to the natural mother, some seven years after the adoption in this case became final. We have jurisdiction to entertain this appeal. Art. V, Sec. 4(b)(1), Fla. Const.; Fla.R. App.P. 9.130(a)(4).
The facts pertaining to this appeal are as follows.
On August 21, 1973, D’Amaris Torres gave birth to a child out of wedlock. In 1977, Alba Calderon, the mother of D’Amaris Torres, legally adopted this child in an adoption proceeding brought in the trial court.
On October 13, 1983, some seven years later, the natural mother Torres filed a petition to set aside the 1977 adoption on the ground that her consent to the adoption had been obtained by fraud; she also later filed, in connection with this petition, a motion to allow her to visit the child. The adoptive mother Calderon filed a motion to dismiss the petition; the trial court heard and granted this motion on the basis that the petition was barred by Section 63.182, Florida Statutes (1981).
The trial court, however, granted the motion for visitation and denied a motion to vacate an order entered thereon. This appeal follows.
We conclude that the order under review must be reversed for two reasons.
First, the trial court by statute lost any authority to vacate or modify the order of adoption, by granting visitation rights to the natural mother or otherwise, after one year had elapsed from the date the adoption became final. § 63.182, Fla.Stat. (1981); see Dean v. Brown, 216 Ark. 761, 227 S.W. 2d 623, 627-28 (1950); Walter v. August, 186 Cal.App.2d 395, 8 Cal.Rptr. 778 (Ct.App.1960). As over seven years had elapsed from the date of the adoption in this case, it is plain that the trial court had no authority to vacate or modify the final order of adoption.
The trial court quite properly dismissed the petition to vacate on this ground; it also should have dismissed the motion for visitation rights filed in connection with this petition.
Second, the trial court had no authority, in any event, to grant visitation rights to the natural mother in this adoption proceeding, as plainly "the natural mother by statute lost all parental right to the child under Section 63.172, Florida Statutes (1981), including visitation rights, when the adoption became final. Roberts v. Davis, 328 So. 2d 879 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976); Jones v. Allen, 277 So. 2d 599 (Fla. 2d DCA 1973); see also Adoption of K.A.M., 367 So. 2d 744 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979).
The order under review is reversed and the cause is remanded to the trial court with directions to vacate the order of child visitation entered herein.
ON REHEARING
The appellee, natural mother, has filed a motion for rehearing in which she attacks the constitutionality of Sections 63.-172, 63.182, Florida Statutes (1981), as applied to the facts of this case. The record reflects that no such contention was ever raised by the appellee in the trial court or in this court until now. We therefore decline to entertain this belated contention as it is untimely raised for the first time on appeal in a motion for rehearing. Sarmiento v. State, 371 So. 2d 1047, 1052-53 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979), aff'd, 397 So. 2d 643 (Fla.1981), and cases collected. The appel-lee’s motion for rehearing is accordingly
Denied.
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McGLAMRY v. McGLAMRY, 608 So. 2d 553 (Fla. 4th DCA 1992)…iction to review the trial court order of June 17, 1992, insofar as it vacates a previous order allowing appellant/father biweekly visitation with the couple’s child. See e.g., Lewter v. Lewter, 508 So. 2d 47 (Fla. 4th DCA 1987); Calderon v. Torres, 445 So. 2d 1040 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984). Also, we do not believe that review is premature, in that the June 17 order does, at least for some period of time, vacate or terminate visitation altogether. Thus, appellant has demonstrated a basis for this court to exercise re…
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M.L.B. and J.B. v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 559 So. 2d 87 (Fla. 3d DCA 1990)…ces [HRS] as grounds for annulment of an adoption may be filed more than one year after entry of a final judgment of adoption. Appellants seek to overturn the trial court’s ruling that section 63.182, Florida Statutes (1987), and Calderon v. Torres, 445 So. 2d 1040 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984), bar their action. We hold that the motion to annul the adoption is not barred. We reverse. The record discloses that appellants wished to adopt a troubled child. Their purpose was to help the child overcome her problems by emplo…1 / 2
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Davis v. Dixon, 545 So. 2d 318 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)…bservations. Pursuant to section 63.-172(l)(b), Florida Statutes (1987)4 all legal relationships between an adopted person and his relatives including his natural parents terminates upon a judgment of adoption becoming final. See Calderon v. Torres, 445 So. 2d 1040 (Fla. 3d DCA 1984); Jones v. Allen, 277 So. 2d 599 (Fla. 1st DCA 1973); Lee v. Kepler, 197 So. 2d 570 (Fla. 3d DCA 1967). Thus without some legislative exemption, a grandparent has no legal right of visitation when the child is adopted. Such exempti…
Previewing 3 of 5 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- State v. Sarmiento, 397 So. 2d 643 (Fla. 1981)
- Sarmiento v. State, 371 So. 2d 1047 (Fla. 3d DCA 1979)
- Jones v. Otis W. Allen and his wife, 277 So. 2d 599 (Fla. 2d DCA 1973)
- Bonita F. Roberts v. Harold Jerome Davis and wife, 328 So. 2d 879 (Fla. 2d DCA 1976)
- In re Adoption OF K. A. M., 367 So. 2d 744 (Fla. 2d DCA 1979)