## Facts

- Olga Scarpetta, an unmarried mother, traveled to New York to give birth and avoid stigma associated with an out-of-wedlock child.
- She was educated and interviewed multiple times by Spence-Chapin Adoption Service, a statutorily authorized adoption agency.
- Four days after birth (May 18, 1970), she placed the infant in the agency’s boarding care and later executed a statutory surrender.
- The agency placed the infant with prospective adoptive parents on June 18, 1970.
- About five days after placement, Scarpetta sought the child’s return after receiving family assurances of support and urging to raise the child.
- Trial-level factfinding (affirmed on appeal) concluded the surrender was not executed with sufficient stability of mind and emotion and was therefore improvident, though the agency committed no unfairness or overreaching.
- The trial court ordered the child returned via habeas corpus; the Appellate Division affirmed.
- On further appeal, the state’s highest court treated the affirmed findings of fact as binding and reviewed only questions of law.

## Issues

1. Whether a statutory surrender of a child to an authorized adoption agency is irrevocable before a final adoption decree.
2. Whether a court may order custody returned to a natural parent upon a showing of improvidence in the surrender, the parent’s fitness, and that return serves the child’s best interests.
3. Whether a statutory surrender should be treated as abandonment that bars a natural parent’s effort to regain custody before adoption.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeals affirmed the order directing the agency to return the child to the natural mother.
- The court held that a statutory surrender to an authorized adoption agency remains subject to judicial supervision until an actual adoption occurs.
- The court rejected the argument that the surrender constituted abandonment as a matter of law.
- Applying the binding factual findings, the court concluded the surrender was improvident and that return to a fit mother would serve the child’s interests.

## Legal Principles

- A pre-adoption surrender to an authorized adoption agency is a unilateral act and is not treated as a contract or deed conclusively terminating parental rights before adoption.
- Until a final adoption, custody arrangements following surrender remain subject to judicial supervision.
- Courts should not set aside surrenders except for weighty reasons, but may do so when:
  - the surrender was improvident, and
  - the child’s interests will be promoted by return, and
  - the natural parent is fit, competent, and able to maintain, support, and educate the child.
- The natural parent’s status retains primary weight even after surrender, though it is not absolute and is considered alongside the child’s welfare.
- Treating surrender as abandonment would conflict with the statutory policy permitting a parent, in appropriate circumstances, to regain custody before adoption.

## Conclusion

The court held that a mother who surrendered her infant to an authorized adoption agency could regain custody before adoption upon proof of improvidence, parental fitness, and that the child’s best interests favor return, and it affirmed the order returning the child to the natural mother.


People ex rel. Scarpetta v. Spence-Chapin Adoption Serv., 28 N.Y.2d 185, 269 N.E.2d 787 (N.Y. 1971)