In Re the Adoption of F

CROCKETT, Justice.

In anomalous contrast to the usual controversies over money or property, the opposing parties here are contesting for the right to incur an economic liability of many thousands of dollars. 1 That is, for something more precious to them: the right to the custody of a child. The dispute is between the natural mother, who relinquished her child for adoption shortly after his birth, and the parents who accepted the child for adoption. After a trial the district court made findings and rendered judgment in favor of the adoptive parents. The mother appeals.

From time when neither…