Facts: Mother and Father are the biological parents of Child. After protracted postdivorce litigation over child custody, Father agreed at mediation to surrender his parental rights and consent to the termination of his parental rights in exchange for Mother agreeing to waive past-due child support.

Mother petitioned to terminate Father’s parental rights. Notably, no adoption petition was filed before or after the termination petition was filed. Mother sought termination of Father’s parental rights so she could become Child’s sole provider and so she and Child could share the same last name.

The trial court found the signed mediation agreement to terminate Father’s parental rights was void because it was against public policy since there was no pending adoption. The trial court further found Father’s lack of visitation and child support after mediation was a mutual mistake of fact based on the void mediated agreement that the parties treated as valid. Mother’s petition to terminate Father’s parental rights was dismissed.

Mother appealed.

On Appeal: The Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court.

Subject-matter jurisdiction concerns a court’s lawful authority to adjudicate a controversy brought before it. Subject-matter jurisdiction may be challenged at any time and may be raised by a court on its own motion, even if the parties have not raised the issue.

Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-13-113(b) identifies who has standing to file a petition to terminate parental rights. The statute gives the parent of the child standing to file a petition to terminate parental rights in only three situations:

1. the other parent has been convicted of rape, aggravated rape, or rape of a child, and the child was conceived from the crime;
2. the other parent has been convicted of severe child sexual abuse; and
3. the other parent has been convicted of attempted first-degree murder or attempted second-degree murder of the non-offending parent.

The statute omits the parent of a child from the list of people having standing to file a termination petition based on the other termination grounds.

Moreover, a parent has the duty to support their children financially. When parental rights are terminated, all legal rights and obligations of the parents are severed, including the duty to provide financial support. Thus, the termination of a parent’s parental rights outside the context of a prospective adoption would deny the child the financial support of two parents.

The Court agreed with the trial court’s decision:

Here, Mother sought to terminate Father’s parental rights based on the grounds of abandonment by failure to visit and abandonment by failure to support. Because Tennessee Code Annotated § 36-1-113 does not give a child’s parent standing to file a termination petition based on these grounds, Mother lacked standing to file her termination petition seeking to terminate Father’s parental rights.

The Court also observed that the statute omits the child’s other biological parent from the list of people or entities to whom parental rights may be surrendered. Thus, Father could not surrender his parental rights to Mother.

The Court affirmed the trial court’s dismissal of Mother’s petition to terminate Father’s parental rights.

Source: In re Blake V. (Tennessee Court of Appeals, Middle Section, November 7, 2023).

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