Jack Alan Brown v. Idaho State Board

This is an adult adoption case in which an adult child sought to have her stepfather adopt her after she reached the age of eighteen, and also sought termination of her parental relationship with her father. The magistrate court concluded that I.C. § 16-1501 did provide for adoption of adults, and thus such an adoption was permissible; however the court did not terminate the fathers rights, and did not rule on the consequences of the adoption to him. The father appeared at the hearing after receiving notice of the proposed adoption, refused to give his consent, and in fact objected to the adoption. The magistrate concluded that there was no requirement for the fathers consent for an adult adoption, and thus he went ahead and granted the adoption, but did not terminate the fathers rights. The district court upheld the magistrate ruling.