Adoption with No Termination of Parental Rights

Last Thursday, the Mississippi Supreme Court decided In the Matter of the Adoption of the Child Described in the Petition: D.D.H., Patrick Latrell Gray and Felicia Hannah Dutch.  Patrick Latrell Grayand Felecia Hannah Dotch petitioned the Attala County Chancery  Court to allow Gray to adopt D.D.H. without terminating Dotch’s parental rights. Dortch gave birth to a daughter, D.D.H.,  in 2003.  She had been in a relationship with Gray and they assumed he was the father.  More than ten years later, he discovered he was not her father but he had acted as her parent throughout her life  – while he and Dortch were in a romantic relation and even after.  The real father is unknown.  Once they realized Gray was not the father, Gray and Dortch petitioned the court to allow Gray to adopt her. The chancellor found that he was constrained by the statutes in doing so and denied the adoption.  The Mississippi Supreme Court reversed finding that such an adoption is not prohibited by Mississippi law. Since Gray is married, the spouse needed to be joined.  The Court found  the “otherwise specifically stated” language of Section 93-17-13(2) allows Gray to adopt the child and allows Dotch to keep her parental rights. The holding was narrowly tailored to the following facts: (1) Gray has acted in loco parentis; (2) he is seeking to adopt and would be adopting as the father; (3) he is seeking to raise the child in concert with Dotch, the natural mother; (4) his spouse will be joined to the proceeding, and (5) there are no third parties to the adoption seeking to keep parental rights.