Termination of parental rights 16 years ago

[mamabear6515]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arkansas

So, here is my situation....16 years ago my husband had an affair with a woman he didn't realize was married at the time. She became pregnant as a result of this affair. When the baby was born, it was agreed upon by him and the mother that he would terminate his parental rights. The man she was married to adopted the baby. My husband has not had contact with this child at all, who is now 16 years old. Now, 16 years later, the mom has contacted my husband to say she is trying to terminate the parental rights of the adopted father and has said that this might come back on my husband. How can it come back on him if he terminated his rights many years ago? Will he have to pay child support for this child?

 

[Ohiogal]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arkansas

So, here is my situation....16 years ago my husband had an affair with a woman he didn't realize was married at the time. She became pregnant as a result of this affair. When the baby was born, it was agreed upon by him and the mother that he would terminate his parental rights. The man she was married to adopted the baby. My husband has not had contact with this child at all, who is now 16 years old. Now, 16 years later, the mom has contacted my husband to say she is trying to terminate the parental rights of the adopted father and has said that this might come back on my husband. How can it come back on him if he terminated his rights many years ago? Will he have to pay child support for this child?

Your husband did NOT have parental rights at the time of birth. The husband was the presumptive father. Is your husband sure that his rights were terminated? Was there a COURT proceeding for which he was served? Did he ever establish his paternity? And yes, he may have to pay child support if there was not an actual adoption.

 

[LdiJ]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arkansas

So, here is my situation....16 years ago my husband had an affair with a woman he didn't realize was married at the time. She became pregnant as a result of this affair. When the baby was born, it was agreed upon by him and the mother that he would terminate his parental rights. The man she was married to adopted the baby. My husband has not had contact with this child at all, who is now 16 years old. Now, 16 years later, the mom has contacted my husband to say she is trying to terminate the parental rights of the adopted father and has said that this might come back on my husband. How can it come back on him if he terminated his rights many years ago? Will he have to pay child support for this child?

I do not see how it could come back on your husband. The child was adopted. That is something permanent. Terminating the adoptive father's rights would not put responsibility back on your husband.

Now, if the child was never actually adopted but the husband was just the legal father by virtue of being married to the mother, then there is some slight possibility that the state might allow his paternity to be disestablished as part of their divorce and could attempt to establish your husband's paternity, but the possibility of that is extremely slight.

 

[Ohiogal]

I do not see how it could come back on your husband. The child was adopted. That is something permanent. Terminating the adoptive father's rights would not put responsibility back on your husband.

Now, if the child was never actually adopted but the husband was just the legal father by virtue of being married to the mother, then there is some slight possibility that the state might allow his paternity to be disestablished as part of their divorce and could attempt to establish your husband's paternity, but the possibility of that is extremely slight.

We don't really know the child was adopted. We know he didn't want rights. But he never had them if she was married at the time. Why do you think the possibility of that is extremely slight? Did the husband know MOM cheated? If so when did he find out?

 

[Zigner]

The thing that makes me think this third-party poster doesn't have all the information is that she says that the man that adopted the baby was married to mom at the time of the child's birth. Why the adoption? The man was already the child's legal father...

 

[LdiJ]

We don't really know the child was adopted. We know he didn't want rights. But he never had them if she was married at the time. Why do you think the possibility of that is extremely slight? Did the husband know MOM cheated? If so when did he find out?

No, we do not know for certain that the child was adopted, but I allowed for that by mentioning the possibility of the child simply being the legal dad's child by virtue of him being married to mom.

I think that the odds of that are slight because I think that most courts would not find it in the best interest of a 16 year old to terminate their legal father's rights. They certain won't let mom get away with that if the legal father wants to retain his parental rights, and they may not even let legal dad get away with it if he doesn't.

If legal dad's parental rights are being terminated for cause, then the state would have to have some compelling reason to go after the alleged biological father to establish paternity. That could happen if mom is collecting any kind of state benefits.

So, its a two pronged hurdle. First, the termination of legal dad's parental rights would have to be allowed by the courts, which seem slim to me, and then Second, mom would have to be collecting state benefits so that the state had a vested interest in establishing bio-dad's paternity and collecting support from him.