A. M. v. N. E. D.

400 P.3d 1036, 287 Or. App. 36, 2017 WL 3160635, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 922
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedJuly 26, 2017
Docket16AP00437; A163753
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 400 P.3d 1036 (A. M. v. N. E. D.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A. M. v. N. E. D., 400 P.3d 1036, 287 Or. App. 36, 2017 WL 3160635, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 922 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

LAGESEN, J.

This case concerns a contested adoption proceeding under ORS 109.304 to 109.410 in which grandparents, the legal guardians of their six-year-old granddaughter, A, petitioned to adopt her. A’s father, petitioners’ son, consented to the adoption, but A’s mother did not. As authorized by ORS 109.324 and ORS 109.330, petitioners moved the court for an order allowing the adoption to proceed without mother’s consent on the ground that mother “willfully * * * neglected without just and sufficient cause to provide proper care and maintenance for [A] for one year next preceding the filing of the petition for adoption.” ORS 109.324(1). After an evi-dentiary hearing, the court, upon determining that mother willfully neglected A during the pertinent one-year period, entered an order ruling that mother’s consent is not required for adoption and that the adoption “shall proceed” notwithstanding any objection by mother.

Mother appeals that order, assigning error to the court’s determination that she willfully neglected A and its ensuing conclusion that the adoption shall proceed without mother’s consent and over any of her objections. Mother also asserts that her court-appointed trial counsel1 rendered inadequate assistance of counsel by failing to present evidence favorable to mother. Those arguments, however, are not ones that we can address at present, because the order mother has appealed is not appealable. We therefore must dismiss this appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

As an appellate court, we lack subject matter jurisdiction over an appeal from a judgment or order that is not appealable. State v. Nix, 356 Or 768, 773, 345 P3d 416 (2015). We thus “have an independent duty to determine whether [an] appeal [is] statutorily authorized.” Id. We must comport [38]*38with that “independent duty” even when the parties have not raised the issues themselves, as is the case here. We turn to that jurisdictional assessment.

Given that the legislature has not provided a specific statute for appeals in adoption proceedings, the general appeals statute, ORS 19.205, determines whether we have jurisdiction over this appeal. See Gastineau v. Harris, 121 Or App 67, 70, 853 P2d 1338, rev den, 317 Or 583 (1993) (looking to former ORS 19.010 (1995), renumbered as ORS 19.205 (1997), to determine whether order in adoption case was appealable). It is readily apparent we do not.

ORS 19.205 authorizes appeals from three types of judgments and two types of orders entered in actions. Subsection (1) of the statute supplies us with jurisdiction over appeals from “a limited judgment, general judgment or supplemental judgment, as those terms are defined by ORS 18.005.” The order on appeal, though, is not a judgment in either form or substance. See generally Interstate Roofing, Inc. v. Springville Corp., 347 Or 144, 152, 218 P3d 113 (2009) (explaining that, as defined by statute, a judgment “broadly consists of two distinct parts, one substantive and one formal”). As to form, a document “must be plainly titled as a judgment” to qualify as a judgment. ORS 18.038(1); ORS 18.005(8) (a judgment must be “reflected in a judgment document”); ORS 18.005(9) (a “judgment document” is “a writing in the form provided by ORS 18.038 that incorporates a court’s judgment”). The order in this case is plainly titled as an “order.” As to substance, a document must represent “the concluding decision of a court on one or more requests for relief in one or more actions.” ORS 18.005(8); Interstate Roofing, 347 Or at 152. The order that mother appeals is not “a concluding decision on a request for relief.” Instead, it is an interlocutory decision that A’s adoption can proceed without mother’s consent and over her objection. The trial court still must determine whether to grant the petition for adoption under the standards set forth in ORS 109.3502 before [39]*39it can render a concluding decision on petitioners’ “request for relief’ in this proceeding—that is, the adoption of A, the attendant termination of the parental rights of mother and father, and the other ancillary relief incidental to a decision to permit adoption.

As to orders, subsections (2) and (3) of ORS 19.205 identify the types that are appealable. Subsection (3), by its terms, applies only to post-judgment orders and thus cannot authorize this appeal from an order entered before the entry of any sort of judgment. ORS 19.205(3) (providing for appeals of certain orders “made in the action after a general judgment is entered”). Subsection (2) of ORS 19.205 authorizes an appeal of a prejudgment order if the order “affects a substantial right, and that effectively determines the action so as to prevent a judgment in the action.” ORS 19.205(2). But in Gastineau, we held that an order under ORS 109.324 authorizing an adoption to proceed without a parent’s consent is not that type of order. 121 Or App at 70.

At issue in Gastineau was whether an ORS 109.324 order dispensing with the need for a father’s consent for an adoption was appealable under former ORS 19.010(2)(a) (1995), the statutory predecessor to ORS 19.205(2).3

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

M. F. v. H. S. -S.
336 Or. App. 256 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
Dept. of Human Services v. C. S.
Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024
State v. Huggett
327 Or. App. 425 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2023)
State v. McCarthy
473 P.3d 74 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)
K. L. D. v. J. D. C.
459 P.3d 955 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2020)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
400 P.3d 1036, 287 Or. App. 36, 2017 WL 3160635, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 922, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/a-m-v-n-e-d-orctapp-2017.