FAMILY LAW
Supreme Court of Alaska (2022)
Sarah Couillard
In Angelica C. v. Jonathan C., 519 P.3d 334 (Alaska 2022), the supreme court held that the
superior court did not abuse its discretion by finding that a child’s best interests in preserving the
father’s parental rights outweighed the mother’s rights as a victim of sexual abuse by the child’s
father. (Id. at 344). An illegal sexual relationship, beginning when the mother was thirteen and
the father was nineteen, led to the birth of a child. (Id. at 335, 343). The mother filed a petition to
terminate the father’s parental rights based on an Alaska statute authorizing termination in
situations where conception resulted from sexual abuse of a minor. (Id. at 336). The superior
court denied the petition, finding that termination would not have been in the child’s best
interests. (Id. at 339). The mother appealed. (Id.). Affirming the denial of the termination
petition, the supreme court reasoned that a central purpose of the statute was to eliminate the
need for day–to–day interaction between the victim parent and abuser parent. (Id. at 343–345).
The supreme court also reasoned that the superior court had appropriately considered the nature
of the custody dispute, specifically that the father did not seem to be pestering the mother over
custody and that there was almost no day–to–day interaction between the parents because the
father saw the child only when the child was at the home of his paternal grandparents. (Id. at
343–344). The supreme court affirmed the order denying termination of parental rights, holding
that the superior court did not abuse its discretion by finding that the child’s best interests
outweighed the mother’s rights as a victim. (Id. at 344–345).
