Refusal of the application of the clause in favor of full adoption by the spouse for the benefit...

Refusal of the application of the clause in favor of full adoption by the spouse for the benefit of the unmarried couple

By judgment of February 28, 2018, the Court of Cassation recalled that only the adoption of the child of one’s spouse maintained the parentage of origin with respect to this spouse and his family and thus approved the Court Appeal to have refused to extend the effects of this adoption to a couple of concubines now separated.

In this case, two women had lived in concubinage and then separated. The parentage of the child raised by the couple was established only with respect to one of them, the biological mother, no paternal filiation being otherwise established. The other concubine had therefore filed an application for adoption of the child to have the emotional link between them consecrated.

The Court of Appeal, however, refused to grant her claim on the ground that it would lead to the child's full adoption, thus ending the child's parentage with his mother, who had not renounced it, which would be contrary to the best interests of the child. The Court considered that maintaining the child's bonds with his biological mother was in his best interests.

The Court of Cassation approved the Court of Appeal, recalling that the full adoption of a child by a person older than 28 years has the effect of removing the pre-existing parentage and that only the full adoption of the spouse's child leaves the parentage relationship already established for the spouse and his family. It considered that Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights relating to the right to respect for private and family life did not impose the obligation to consecrate all ties of affection through an adoption and thus refused to apply the favor of article 345-1 of the Civil Code concerning the adoption of the spouse's child to unmarried couples.