IN RE: the ADOPTIONs OF B.C. (2025)

¶1 A.K. (Mother) is the mother of four minor children, B.C., K.J.C., D.W.C., and B.C. (Children). In 2013, while the family was living in Alaska, Children's biological father, C.C. (Father), was charged with two counts of sexual abuse of a minor and was incarcerated. That same year, Mother and Children moved to Utah. In 2015, Father was convicted. And in 2016, Mother divorced Father and married L.K. (Stepfather). Stepfather then began living with Mother and Children and raising them with her.

¶2 In 2020, Mother and Stepfather filed a petition in district court for Stepfather to adopt Children. As part of that action, they moved the district court to terminate Father's parental rights. Father intervened and opposed the termination and adoption. After an evidentiary hearing, the district court terminated Father's parental rights.

¶3 Father immediately appealed the termination order. While his appeal was pending, the court of appeals decided In re Adoption of K.R.S., holding that a termination order issued by a district court is not immediately appealable when an underlying adoption petition remains unresolved.¹ It stated that such an order is not a final judgment because it does not “dispose of all parties and claims in the adoption proceeding.”²

¶4 For the reasons articulated in our decision Ross v. Kracht, 2025 UT 22, ––– P.3d ––––, we retain jurisdiction over this case to hear further arguments on Father's challenges to the termination order. In an order issued alongside this decision, we ask the parties to brief the merits of Father's challenges to the termination order.

FOOTNOTES

1.   2024 UT App 165, ¶ 1, 561 P.3d 229.

2.   Id. ¶ 16 (cleaned up).

Chief Justice Durrant, opinion of the Court: