Ellis v. State Department of Social Welfare

Appellant, Jimmy Anthony Bryant, father of the child, intervened in an adoption proceeding brought by respondents and asked that the proceeding be dismissed. The Department of Social Welfare and the adoptive parents filed an answer to the complaint in intervention and after the trial the court decided that appellant had not legitimized the child and the consent of appellant was there*239fore not necessary to the adoption. The appellant appeals from this judgment.

The evidence at the trial indicates that in October 1961 appellant, who was then 17, discovered that Sue, who was then 14, was pregnant…