NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1971 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 233

SENATE BILL 55

 

 

AN ACT TO PROVIDE THAT VENUE FOR AN ADOPTION PROCEEDING MAY BE ANY COUNTY IN THE STATE WHEN NO OBJECTION IS ENTERED.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  G.S. 48-12, as it appears in the 1966 Replacement Volume 2A of the General Statutes, is hereby amended by designating the text thereof as subsection (a) and by adding new subsections (b) and (c) thereto so that G.S. 48-12 shall read as follows:

"§ 48-12.  Nature of proceeding; venue. — (a) Adoption shall be by a special proceeding before the clerk of the superior court. The petition may be filed in the county:

(1)        Where the petitioners reside; or

(2)        Where the child resides; or

(3)        Where the child resided when it became a public charge; or

(4)        In which is located any licensed child placing agency or institution operating under the laws of this State and having custody of the child or to which the child shall have been surrendered as provided in G.S. 48-9.

(b)        The petition may be filed and the proceeding may be completed in any other county unless a parent or guardian of the person or other person having actual or legal custody of the child to be adopted shall file a written objection with the clerk within 30 days after the filing of the petition for adoption or within 30 days after the completion of any notice required by this Chapter to be given to the person filing such objection.

(c)        In the event of the filing of an objection in accordance with subsection (b), venue shall thenceforth be as described in subsection (a) and the clerk shall transmit forthwith all documents, reports and papers on file or thereafter filed with him concerning the proceeding to such clerk of court as shall be designated in writing by the petitioner or petitioners. The status of the proceeding then shall be for all purposes the same as if all things done in the proceeding had been done in the court of adoptions to which the proceeding has been removed in accordance with this subsection."

Sec. 2.  This act shall apply to pending proceedings. Notwithstanding the time period provisions in G.S. 48-12(b) as rewritten, written objections need not be filed earlier than 30 days after the date of ratification.

Sec. 3.  This act shall be effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 27th day of April, 1971.