The Court of Appeals reversed a trial court that mis-applied the best-interests-of-the-child standard in approving an adoption by finding that the mother withheld consent to it contrary to the child's best interests. It said the trial court put too much emphasis on the mother's long time without contact, and lack of a relationship with, the child, and not enough emphasis on how that separation from the child was lengthened and worsened by the adoptive parent's deliberately interfering with and preventing contact, and lengthy litigation.
Gregory v. Martin, Record No. 0816-15-3 (July 19, 2018, unpublished)
The mother had a long history of drug abuse was incarcerated for grand larceny, breaking and entering, and larceny with intent to steal when the child turned one. The father also had a problem with drug abuse, therefore the child stayed with the paternal grandfather and the child's father's sister, who filed a petition for adoption. The child's father gave consent, but the mother did not. Upon the mother's release, she filed a motion to amend visitation, but the court denied her motion because it was not in the best interests of the child, and found that the mother unreasonably withheld her consent for the aunt to adopt her child. There was a court appointed GAL on the case, and the GAL stated that the mother never really had a relationship with the child. The court found that the child was in a good place and should stay with the aunt, and that the mother refused the child's best interest by withholding her consent for adoption.