CANCELLATION OF ADOPTION AFTER THE CHILD REACHES ADULTS. JUDICIAL PRACTICE

In practice, there are cases when the parents of adopted children for one reason or another apply to the court to cancel the adoption of a child after reaching adulthood.

 Thus, the father of the adopted child appealed to the court to cancel the adult adopted child. At the time of adoption, the child was under 14 years old. In support of his claims, he stated that in 2013 he started living in the same family with his ex-wife, with whom he married in 2015, and in 2016 he adopted her child from a previous marriage. However, their family life did not work out, in 2017 they divorced, and his wife and adopted daughter left for permanent residence in the Russian Federation. At present, the child has reached the age of majority. Therefore, as he does not have the actual ability and possibility to live together and take part in the upbringing of a minor child, he asks to cancel the adoption. He also believes that since he and his wife have divorced, it is impossible to live with the adopted child, he does not currently have any contact with the child, does not take part in raising his daughter, and the adoption has ceased to provide family upbringing and is against the child's interests.

 The court denied the plaintiff's annulment of the adoption, and the appellate court upheld the trial court's decision.

 According to the current legislation, the abolition of adoption in respect of an adult is determined depending on the time of adoption (before or after reaching adulthood).

 If the adoption took place before the person reaches the age of majority, it is impossible to cancel it as a general rule, except for the facts of illegal behavior of the adopter or the adoptee that endangered the life, health of the adoptee, adoptive parent or other family members.

 In the case of adoption of an adult, it may be revoked in accordance with Part 3 of Art. 238 of the IC of Ukraine in two cases:

1) by mutual consent of the adopter and the adopted or

2) at the request of one of them, if the family relationship between them has not developed.

 In this case, the adoption took place before the child reached the age of 14, and the court was not provided with any evidence to prove the circumstances of the adopter's or the adoptee's wrongful conduct. The reference to the fact that the relationship between the adoptee and the adoptive parent has not developed is unfounded, as this circumstance concerns the cancellation of the adoption of an adult, ie when the court has already adopted an adult.

 Therefore, in the case of cancellation of the adoption of a child after reaching the age of majority, which was adopted by a minor, erroneously refer to the requirements of Part 3 of Art. 238 of the IC of Ukraine, as a basis for satisfaction of claims.