81-13-104. Responsibility for own actions -- Fraud or misrepresentation.
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Effective 9/1/2025
81-13-104. Responsibility for own actions -- Fraud or misrepresentation.
(1)Each parent of an adoptee conceived or born outside of marriage is responsible for the parent's own actions and is not excused from strict compliance with the provisions of this chapter based upon any action, statement, or omission of the other parent or third parties.
(a)Any person injured by fraudulent representations or actions in connection with an adoption is entitled to pursue civil or criminal penalties in accordance with existing law.
(b)A fraudulent representation is not a defense to strict compliance with the requirements of this chapter and is not a basis for dismissal of a petition for adoption, vacation of an adoption decree, or an automatic grant of custody to the offended party.
(c)For a child adoptee, a custody determination shall be based on the best interests of the child adoptee in accordance with the provisions of Section 81-13-215 .
(3)A child-placing agency and the employees of a child-placing agency may not:
(a)employ any device, scheme, or artifice to defraud;
(b)engage in any act, practice, or course of business that operates or would operate as a fraud or deceit upon any person;
(c)materially and intentionally misrepresent facts or information; or
(d)request or require a prospective adoptive parent to grant, as a condition of or in connection with entering into an agreement with a child-placing agency, a release of either the prospective adoptive parent's claims or the adoptee's claims against the child-placing agency regarding any of the following:
(i)criminal misconduct;
(ii)ethical violations, as established by the Office of Licensing's administrative rules;
(iii)bad faith;
(iv)intentional torts;
(v)fraud;
(vi)gross negligence associated with care of the adoptee, as described in Subsection 81-13-210(2) ;
(vii)future misconduct that may arise before the adoption is finalized;
(viii)breach of contract; or
(ix)gross negligence.
(4)Subsection
(3)does not prohibit a release of claims against a child-placing agency or a child-placing agency's employees for liability arising from the acts or the failure to act of a third party.
Renumbered and Amended by Chapter 426 , 2025 General Session