Friedhelm D. v. John H.

Under the guise of a Civil Code section 224 proceeding to dispense with a natural father’s consent for a stepparent adoption, the superior court essentially terminated the father’s parental rights on the basis of abandonment (Civ. Code, § 232, subd. (a)(1)), although a cause of action under the latter section had been dismissed without prejudice. We reverse.

I

Allison H. was born in August 1979. Her parents, who had lived together for several years before her birth, separated when she was one year old. Her mother, Charlene P., sued in 1981 to establish a parent/child relationship between the minor and the father, John H. The father did not contest paternity, and the court awarded the couple joint legal custody with physical custody to alternate every three months. No child support was ordered.

Charlene married Friedhelm D. in 1981. The couple, her two children from a previous marriage, and baby Allison moved first to West Germany and then to South Carolina, where they currently reside. Years elapsed without communication between father and daughter.

In early 1990, after being served with a petition filed in South Carolina to permit Friedhelm to adopt Allison, John…