(Download) "Adoption W.B.L" by En Banc Supreme Court of Missouri * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free
eBook details
- Title: Adoption W.B.L
- Author : En Banc Supreme Court of Missouri
- Release Date : January 18, 1984
- Genre: Law,Books,Professional & Technical,
- Pages : * pages
- Size : 54 KB
Description
This appeal is from the trial court's granting, upon remand by this Court in In re Adoption of W.B.L., 647 S.W.2d 531 (Mo. banc 1983), the adoption of a child on the grounds of abandonment and neglect by the natural mother under § 453.040(4), RSMo 1978. The court of appeals reversed for lack of sufficient evidence to support the judgment. Upon application, this Court granted transfer. We affirm the trial court's judgment. On October 19, 1979, respondents, the father and stepmother of the child, filed their petition for adoption. Section 453.040(4), RSMo 1978, provides for adoption without the consent of a natural parent when the parent has for a period of at least one year immediately prior to the filing of the petition for adoption, either willfully abandoned the child or willfully neglected to provide him with proper care and maintenance. 1 In its initial determination, the trial court found the natural mother had willfully abandoned and neglected the child from August of 1978 until September of 1979, a period of greater than one year, and granted the adoption. Because the trial court's findings contained a gap in the requisite statutory period between October 19, 1979, the date of filing the petition, and the end of September 1979, we remanded for the trial court to consider whether abandonment continued until October 19, 1979, as required by § 453.040(4). Without taking additional evidence, the trial court then filed an amended decree, finding that the abandonment and neglect had continued from August of 1978 until October 19, 1979, and again granted the adoption. The natural mother contests the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the determination of abandonment and neglect, and asserts that in late September of early October 1979, she attempted to exercise her visitation rights and that she repented any earlier abandonment. Accordingly, she seeks reversal of the adoption decree.
 "Adoption W.B.L" by En Banc Supreme Court of Missouri * Book PDF Kindle ePub Free){kind=link}