The Third Appellate District affirmed a judgment. The court held that a state statute authorizing the family court to vacate orders of adoption could not be used to vacate an adoption which took place in another country.
California residents Martin Smith and Eleanor Pracht-Smith adopted three-year old M.S. from the Ukraine. The decree of adoption was entered in the Ukraine. After the adoption was finalized, the Smiths learned that M.S. had numerous significant health problems, including, among others, cerebral palsy, microcephaly, mental retardation, and reactive attachment and oppositional defiance disorders. None of these disorders was previously disclosed. According to the Smiths, M.S. could not live in a normal home environment, was unadoptable, and had been living in intensive foster care placement in Arizona since 2005.
