In re M.C.S.

V.M.S. (Father) (plaintiff) and J.A.S. (Mother) were a married couple living in Iowa who had two children prior to their separation. After separating, Father and Mother continued to have sex occasionally. One day, Mother notified Father that she was pregnant but that he was not the child’s father. Mother indicated that a man named J.P., who was also an Iowa resident, was the father. J.P. signed a consent to have his parental rights terminated. Mother gave birth to the child, M.C.S., in a Minnesota town not far from her home in Iowa. After M.C.S. was born, Mother traveled out of state to South Dakota to Christian Counseling Service (defendant), an adoption agency. There, Mother signed a petition to terminate her parental rights. The petition was subsequently filed. Although a circuit court was informed that Mother was married to Father, Father was not given notice of the proceeding at which the parental rights of M.C.S. were transferred to the agency, nine days after the child was born. Because Father and Mother had sex in February 1991, it was possible that M.C.S. was Father’s child. Father contacted the agency before an adoption was finalized. Father submitted a writ of habeas corpus and moved for relief from the termination order. However, the adoption was completed before a hearing could be held, and relief was later denied. Father appealed, arguing that under the Uniform Child Custody Jurisdiction Act (UCCJA), South Dakota lacked subject-matter jurisdiction to make a determination regarding custody of M.C.S. The agency argued that the UCCJA was not applicable to a proceeding to terminate parental rights, which it argued was not a custody proceeding. The UCCJA did not state whether proceedings for terminating parental rights and for adoption were considered custody proceedings. Some jurisdictions did not regard the UCCJA as applicable. However, the South Dakota Supreme Court sided with other jurisdictions that noted that an adoption hearing was the most drastic of custody-determining hearings and found the UCCJA applicable.