NASSAU-A Bahamian man has lost a bid to adopt his Jamaican stepdaughter.
MM applied to adopt his Jamaican wife’s daughter in October 2017, two months shy of her 17th birthday.
When Justice Donna Newton refused the application in October 2019, his stepdaughter was legally an adult.
Justice Newton ruled that “the true motive of the application was to achieve citizenship.”
MM, who began dating his stepdaughter’s mother in 2008 and married her in 2010, appealed the judge’s decision. MM said became a father figure to his wife’s child in 2008.
In a decision delivered on Thursday, the Appeals Court said the judge had no authority to grant an adoption because the stepdaughter was no longer an infant in 2019.
However, the court said the three-year delay in hearing the application was “deplorable and regrettable.”
MM’s stepdaughter’s biological father is Jamaican. She will celebrate her 20th birthday on December 6.