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Tenn. Code Ann. § 36-1-122

Binding effect of adoption

Applied in 3 court decisions — leading case In re: Adoption of Heather Christine Hatcher (1999)

Most recently applied in In Re: Apex R. (June 2018)

Acts 1951, ch. 202, §§ 27, 30 (Williams, §§ 9572.41, 9572.44); impl. am

How often courts cite this section

199920002010201810
citing decisions per year

Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.

(1) When a child is adopted pursuant to this part, the adoptive parents shall not thereafter be deprived of any rights in the child, at the insistence of the child's biological or prior legal parents or guardian of the child or any other person or agency except in the same manner and for the same causes as are applicable in proceedings to deprive biological or legal parents or guardians of their children or wards as provided by law.

(2) After the final order of adoption is entered, no party to an adoption proceeding, nor anyone claiming under such party, may later question the validity of the adoption proceeding by reason of any defect or irregularity therein, jurisdictional or otherwise, but shall be fully bound by the order, except for such appeal as may be allowed by law.

(3) In no event, for any reason, shall an adoption be overturned by any court or collaterally attacked by any person or entity after one (1) year from the date of entry of the final order of adoption by a court of competent jurisdiction. This provision is intended as a statute of repose.

(4) The failure of the clerk of the court, the department, a licensed child-placing agency, or a licensed clinical social worker to perform any of the duties or acts with the time requirements of this part shall not affect the validity of any adoption proceeding.

Current official text: Tennessee Code (LexisNexis). Digitized from the UniCourt Code Improvement Commission public-domain capture. Reproduced from public-domain Tennessee statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.