Lawsuit: Irish Woman Sues over 1970s Forced Adoption
“A woman who claims her baby was put up for adoption in the 1970s without her permission is entitled to sue for damages even though she is not contesting the adoption order, the High Court has ruled.
She claims she was not even consulted when, as a teen mother, the baby was taken for adoption. She says she suffered psychological harm, among other injuries, due to the defendants’ alleged negligence, breach of duty and breach of her constitutional rights.
She also claims fraud and undue influence in relation to documents allegedly signed by her for the adoption.
Sensitive case
Mr Justice Seán Ryan, who said the parties, with the exception of the HSE, should not be identified at this stage, described the case as difficult, sensitive and painful.
The judge was only dealing with a preliminary issue as to whether she could sue for damages if she was not contesting the validity of the adoption order. She had no desire to upset the arrangement which had been made for her now adult child but was confining her claim to the alleged wrongs done to her, the judge said.
The defendants had argued she was not entitled to claim damages without first challenging the validity of the adoption order and without also possibly bringing others into the case, such as the child, the adoptive parents and the Adoption Authority of Ireland.
The issue was whether she could prove her damages case without proving facts which might invalidate the adoption order, the judge said.
It has also been argued by the religious order involved that she could not claim damages for being wrongfully deprived of her child unless the adoption order was declared invalid.
The HSE argued that if her claims of fraud were accepted, this would have the indirect effect of undermining the adoption order.
Adoption Act
Ruling in her favour, Mr Justice Ryan said it was not a precondition of seeking damages for her to include a claim that the adoption order was invalid. It did not follow as a matter of law or logic that there should be such a rule, he said.
His view, he said, was reinforced by the 2010 Adoption Act, section 50(1), which says an adoption shall not be declared invalid by a court if it is satisfied that such a declaration would not be in the best interests of the child concerned, or that it would not be proper to do so having regard to the rights and interests of “all persons concerned”.”
Woman to sue over adoption of her baby
[Irish Times 6/1/13]
REFORM Puzzle Piece
This poor woman somehow needs to check in with the very people who victimized her for their blessings to file a lawsuit? Of course the defendants are going to argue they did no wrong to avoid being held liable.
Someone missed the point about consent laws when all this was going down forty some odd years ago. The coercion is inherent in the culture of those times and that country.
Mr. Justice Ryan got it right. What the other people involved think is not a precondition for the justice system to address the wrong, which was wrapped in secrecy and often literally buried in pauper’s graves under a changed identity by the institutions who exploited women in Ireland.