Doe v. Smith

MAXWELL, JUSTICE,

FOR THE COURT:

¶1. When consent for a supposedly “uncontested” adoption is gained by intentionally concealing the identity of a known natural parent from the chancellor, a fraud is perpetrated upon the court.1 Such was the case here, where the natural mother schemed to give away her child without the natural father’s consent. She did so by falsely claiming — in her sworn consent and joinder and testimony at the adoption proceedings — that she was unaware of her son’s natural father. And her deception caused the court to grant an adoption to a third party based on false,…