For those of you in the Lafayette area who are interested in seeing our state Supreme Court at work, you might want to check out the oral argument set for November 10, 2014 at Loeb Playhouse in the Stewart Center.
The case under review is Kramer v. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Fort Wayne-South Bend, Inc. (pdf), which was a split decision before a panel of the Court of Appeals. Judge Najam wrote the majority opinion with Judge Crone concurring while Judge Baker dissented.
The Supreme Court summary of the factual background of the cases states:
[A] child’s pre-adoptive placement (with the Kramers) failed when the child’s biological father came forward. The father established his paternity and successfully contested the adoption. The Kramers then sued the adoption agency (Catholic Charities) alleging negligence for failing to discover the father’s registration with Indiana’s Putative Father Registry.
At issue is whether the timing of the adoption agency’s review of the putative father registry was negligent, whether the adoption agency had a duty to check the registry, and whether the adopting parents waived their ability to bring this claim when they signed the agency’s release form. As luck would have it, I discussed the release/waiver issue in a blog post for my law firm when the Court of Appeals decision came out in March.
Wow what a tangle. IMO Catholic Charities is in the wrong, but the father’s rights supercede all other considerations. I agree with this statement (in a societal, but not a legal sense) from the prior opinion: “I agree with the notion advanced by Catholic Charities that permitting adoption agencies to avoid liability for a parent enforcing his parental rights through no effort of the agency is for the public good”.
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Pretty cool for them to a road show, but it’s a shame they have to leave the Capitol. Man, that is a beautiful room
I assume the reason they do it, is to allow for more transparency and informing /educating the public. I know that the senior social studies classes all attended from WLHS, which I would have loved to do.. Might have even led me to decide to practice law.