Jessee v. Nash

Banke, Judge.

This is an appeal by the natural father from an order granting a petition for the adoption of his 5-year-old daughter. The petition was filed by the child’s stepfather, the appellee herein, and was granted on the basis of a finding that the father had surrendered his rights to the child by failing to make court-ordered child support payments for more than a year prior to the filing of the petition, as well as a finding that the adoption would be in the child’s best interests.

The appellant was divorced from the child’s mother on March 30, 1981, and was ordered at that time to pay…