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Utah Court of Appeals hears challenge to 2021 adoption decree amid fraud and choice-of-law dispute
Summary
The Utah Court of Appeals heard argument in an appeal by a Minnesota father, DCT, who contends a fraudulently obtained July 6, 2021, adoption decree should be vacated and that Utah law improperly cut off his Minnesota remedies; judges questioned whether Utah statutes and fraud-immunity rules bar relief and whether Minnesota law should govern.
The Utah Court of Appeals heard oral argument Thursday in an appeal by DCT, the unmarried biological father, seeking to undo an adoption finalized July 6, 2021. Appellant counsel Wes Hutchins argued the adoption was procured through significant misrepresentations and that provisions of the Utah Adoption Act — described in argument as a fraud-immunity construct — make a fraudulently obtained decree effectively unassailable.
Hutchins told the three-judge panel, chaired by Judge Amy Oliver, that the gravamen of his appeal is an "as-applied" due-process challenge: Utah statutes were applied here in a way that extinguished the Minnesota father's rights after a decree he says was obtained by fraud. "You can't use Minnesota law to say he's not complied with an adoption decree that's improperly issued in the first place," Hutchins said during argument, citing appellate precedents and record passages where the district court expressed concern about misrepresentations.
Appellees, represented by Lance Rich, told the court the district court found the father…
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