|
In a case involving
two women raising the biological child of one of the women, the
court held that under the statute granting the Probate Court jurisdiction
over adoptions, the Probate Court did not have jurisdiction to consider
an adoption petition by the non-biological parent, who was neither
a blood relative nor a step-parent of the child, absent (1) the
appointment of a statutory parent, which may be either the commissioner
of the Department of Children and Families or a child-placing agency,
and (2) the child's placement for adoption by the commissioner of
DCF or the child-placing agency. The court held that the adoption
review board's statutory authority to waive the placement requirement
extends only to those cases where a statutory parent has been appointed.
Further, the court construed the statute governing the adoption
review board to preclude the board from waiving the requirement
that an adoption application be accompanied by a statutory parent,
stepparent, or blood relative adoption agreement. The court declined
to address plaintiff's claims that the denial of the adoption application
constituted a deprivation of due process and equal protection; the
court held that those claims challenged the constitutionality of
a future order.
|
