NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1961 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 241

SENATE BILL 72

 

 

AN ACT AMENDING G.S. 48‑2(3) RELATING TO THE DEFINITION OF ABANDONMENT FOR ADOPTION PURPOSES.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina do enact:

 

Section 1.  That G.S. 48‑2, Subsection (3), as the same appears in the 1959 Cumulative Supplement to Volume 2A of the General Statutes, be redesignated as G.S. 48‑2(3)(a), and that immediately following said subsection there be added a new subsection to be designated as G.S. 48‑2(3)(b), and to read as follows:

"(3)     (b)        In addition to the definition of abandonment in (3)(a) above, an abandoned child, for purposes of this Chapter, shall be a child under 18 years of age who has been placed in the care of a child caring institution or foster home, and whose parent, parents, or guardian of the person has failed substantially and continuously for a period of more than one year to maintain contact with such child, and has wilfully failed for such period to contribute adequate support to such child, although physically and financially able to do so. In order to find an abandonment under this subsection, the court must find the foregoing and the court must also find that diligent but unsuccessful efforts have been made on the part of the institution or a child placing agency to encourage the parent, parents, or guardian of the person of the child to strengthen the parental or custodial relationship to the child."

Sec. 2.  All laws and clauses of laws in conflict with this Act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 3.  This Act shall become effective upon its ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 18th day of April, 1961.