## Facts

- Rena Sims, the biological mother, arranged for Adoption Alliance to place her newborn with proposed adoptive parents.
- The child was born on August 17, 1995.
- Sims executed an affidavit of relinquishment of parental rights about 26 hours after birth, on August 18, 1995.
- Sims soon sought to keep the child.
- On August 22, 1995, Adoption Alliance filed a suit to terminate Sims’s parental rights and to be appointed managing conservator.
- A statutory amendment requiring a 48-hour waiting period before a mother may execute a valid relinquishment affidavit took effect September 1, 1995 and expressly applied to suits “pending” on that date.
- The trial court terminated Sims’s parental rights on September 8, 1995, after the amendment’s effective date.

## Issues

1. Whether the 48-hour waiting-period amendment applied to a termination suit filed before, but still pending on, September 1, 1995.
2. If the amendment applied, whether Sims’s relinquishment affidavit signed about 26 hours after birth could support termination of her parental rights.

## Decision

- The court held the amendment applied because the suit was pending on September 1, 1995.
- The court held Sims’s affidavit did not satisfy the 48-hour waiting requirement and therefore could not support termination.
- The court reversed the termination judgment and remanded for further proceedings.

## Legal Principles

- Unambiguous statutory language is enforced according to its plain meaning.
- A suit is “pending” from filing until final judgment is rendered.
- When the legislature expressly directs a statute to apply to pending cases, courts apply that instruction as written.
- A relinquishment affidavit executed before the statutory waiting period expires is legally insufficient to support termination of parental rights.

## Conclusion

Because the termination proceeding remained pending on the effective date of the statutory amendment, the 48-hour waiting period governed; Sims’s affidavit executed about 26 hours after birth was invalid, requiring reversal of the termination order and remand.


Sims v. Adoption Alliance, 922 S.W.2d 213 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1996)