Title 8, Family Law & Probate

Who May be Adopted. Any resident under the age of 18 years may be adopted under this chapter; provided, that the Superior Court shall have the discretion to allow for the adoption of residents over the age of 18 years if the proposed adoption of such persons is found to be in con…

Who May Adopt. Any adult individual who is a resident of the Commonwealth, not married, or any person married to the legal father or mother of a minor child, or a husband and wife jointly, may petition the Superior Court for leave to adopt an individual toward whom he or they do …

Persons Required to Consent to Adoption. (a) Unless consent is not required under 8 CMC § 1405, a petition to adopt a minor may be granted only if written consent to a particular adoption has been executed by: (1) The mother of the child; (2) A legal father as to whom the child i…

Persons as to Whom Consent and Notice is not Required. (a) Consent to adoption is not required of: (1) A parent who has deserted a child without affording means of identification or who has abandoned the child for a period of least six months; (2) A parent of a child in the custo…

How Consent is Executed. (a) The required consent to adoption shall be executed at any time after the birth of the child and in the manner following: (1) If by the individual to be adopted, in the presence of the court; (2) If by an agency, by the executive head or authorized rep…

Withdrawal of Consent. (a) A consent to adoption cannot be withdrawn after the entry of a decree of adoption. (b) A consent to adoption may be withdrawn prior to the entry of a decree of adoption if the court finds, after notice and opportunity to be heard is afforded to petition…

Petition for Adoption. (a) A petition for adoption shall be signed and verified by the petitioner, filed with the clerk of the court, and state or include: (1) The date and place of birth, if known, and the period of residency in the Commonwealth, of the individual to be adopted;…

Report of Petitioner’s Expenditures. (a) Except as specified in subsection (b) of this section, the petitioner in any proceeding for the adoption of a minor child shall file, before the petition is heard, a full accounting report in a manner acceptable to the court of all disburs…

Notice of Petition, Hearing, and Investigation. (a) After the filing of a petition to adopt a minor, the court shall fix a time and place for hearing the petition. At least 20 days before the date of hearing, a notice of the filing of the petition and of time and place of the hea…

Appearance; Continuance; Disposition of Petition. (a) The petitioner and the individual to be adopted shall appear at the hearing on the petition, unless the presence of either is excused by the court for good cause shown. (b) The court may continue the hearing from time to time …

Effect of Petition and Decree of Adoption. (a) A final decree of adoption and an interlocutory decree of adoption which has become final, whether issued by a court of the Commonwealth or of any other place, have the following effect as to matters within the jurisdiction or before…

Appeal and Validation of Adoption Decree. (a) An appeal from any final order or decree rendered under this chapter may be taken in the manner and time provided for appeal from a judgment in a civil action. (b) Subject to the disposition of an appeal, upon the expiration of one ye…

Hearings and Records of Adoption Proceedings; Confidential Nature. (a) Notwithstanding any other law concerning public hearings and records: (1) All hearings held in proceedings under this chapter, shall, upon request by any interested person and upon order the court, be held in …

Recognition of Foreign Decree Affecting Adoption. A decree of court terminating the relationship of parent and child or establishing the relationship by adoption pursuant to due process of law by a court of any other jurisdiction within or without the United States shall be recog…

Change of Name. The court may fix or change the given name and the family name of an adoptive minor child to the name stipulated by the adoptive parents or that name which is in the best interest of the child. The court may fix or change the given name and family name of an adopt…

New Birth Record. (a) A certified copy of the decree of adoption, or a certified abstract thereof on a form approved by the clerk of the Superior Court, after the decree has become effective shall be sent to the Commonwealth Recorder’s office. The Commonwealth Recorder’s office s…

Relinquishment and Termination of Parent and Child Relationship. (a) The rights of a parent with reference to a child, including parental right to control the child or to withhold consent to an adoption, may be relinquished and the relationship of parent and child terminated in o…

Construction of Chapter; Rights of Persons Affected by Adoption. This chapter shall be liberally construed to the end that the best interests of adopted children are promoted. Due regard shall be given to the rights of all persons affected by a child’s adoption. Nothing in this c…

Illegal Acts. The following acts shall constitute a felony and shall be punishable by one year imprisonment or a $10,000 fine, or both: (a) Child Trafficking. For the purposes of this section, a person commits the offense of child trafficking when he or she gives or receives or o…

Guardianships. (a) Appointment. The Court may appoint, for a term or indefinitely subject to review, an adult over the age of eighteen years to serve as a legal guardian of a minor child only after the following conditions are satisfied: (1) A petition by the proposed guardian st…

Devisee to Survive Testator. A devisee who does not survive the testator by 120 hours is treated as if he predeceased the testator, unless the will of decedent contains some language dealing explicitly with simultaneous deaths or deaths in a common disaster, or requiring that the…

Choice of Law as to Meaning and Effect. The meaning and legal effect of a disposition in a will shall be determined by the local law of the particular jurisdiction selected by the testator in his instrument unless the application of that law is contrary to the public policy of th…

Rules of Construction and Intention. The intention of a testator as expressed in his will controls the legal effect of his dispositions. The rules of construction expressed in the succeeding sections of this chapter apply unless a contrary intention is indicated by the will. Sour…

Will Passes all Property. A will is construed to pass all property which the testator owns at his death including property acquired after the execution of the will. Source: PL 3-106, ch. 4, § 4.

Anti-Lapse, Deceased Devisee, and Class Gifts. If a devisee who is a grandparent or a lineal descendant of a grandparent of the testator is dead at the time of execution of the will, fails to survive the testator, or is treated as if he or she predeceased the testator, the issue …

Failure of Testamentary Provision. (a) Except as provided in 8 CMC § 2405, if a devise other than a residuary devise fails for any reason, it becomes a part of the residue. (b) Except as provided in 8 CMC § 2405, if the residue is devised to two or more persons and the share of o…

Change in Securities, Accessions, and Nonademption. (a) If the testator intended a specific devise of certain securities rather than the equivalent value thereof, the specific devisee is entitled only to: (1) As much as the devised securities as is a part of the estate at the tim…

Nonexoneration. A specific devise passes subject to any security or mortgage interest existing at the date of death, without right of exoneration, regardless of a general directive in the will to pay debts. Source: PL 3-106, ch. 4, § 8.

Generic Terms to Accord with Relationships as Defined for Intestate Succession. Half-bloods, adopted persons and persons born out of wedlock are included in class gift terminology and terms of relationship in accordance with rules for determining relationships for purposes of int…

Ademption by Satisfaction and Customary Wills and Partidas. Property which a testator gave in his or her lifetime to a person is treated as a satisfaction of a devise to that person in whole or in part, only if the will provides for deduction of the lifetime gift, or the testator…

Title to Real Property. Whenever a person not of Northern Marianas descent takes title to real property under this code, he or she shall take the maximum allowable legal interest in the real property and the remaining interest if any shall vest in the next closest heirs or devise…

Short Title. This Act may be cited as the “Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.” Source: PL 20-22 § 6 (Oct. 6, 2017). Commission Comment: PL 20-22 included the following Findings section: The Legislature finds that: a) The United States Congress determined that because of the t…

Definitions. In this Act: (a) “Child” means an individual, whether over or under the age of majority, who is or is alleged to be owed a duty of support by the individual’s parent or who is or is alleged to be the beneficiary of a support order directed to the parent. (b) “Child-s…

State Tribunal and Support Enforcement Agency. (a) The Superior Court of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands is the tribunal of this state. (b) The Office of the Attorney General is the support enforcement agency of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. S…

Remedies Cumulative. (a) Remedies provided by this Act are cumulative and do not affect the availability of remedies under other law or the recognition of a foreign support order on the basis of comity. (b) This Act does not: (1) provide the exclusive method of establishing or en…

Application of Act to Resident of Foreign Country and Foreign Support Proceeding. (a) A tribunal of this state shall apply Articles 1 through 6 and, as applicable, Article 7, to a support proceeding involving: (1) a foreign support order; (2) a foreign tribunal; or (3) an obligee…

Bases for Jurisdiction Over Nonresident. (a) In a proceeding to establish or enforce a support order or to determine parentage of a child, a tribunal of this state may exercise personal jurisdiction over a nonresident individual or the individual’s guardian if: (1) the individual…

Duration of Personal Jurisdiction. Personal jurisdiction acquired by a tribunal of this state in a proceeding under this Act or other law of this state relating to a support order continues as long as a tribunal of this state has continuing, exclusive jurisdiction to modify its o…

Initiating and Responding Tribunal of State. Under this Act, a tribunal of this state may serve as an initiating tribunal to forward proceedings to a tribunal of another state, and as a responding tribunal for proceedings initiated in another state or a foreign country. Source: P…

Simultaneous Proceedings. (a) A tribunal of this state may exercise jurisdiction to establish a support order if the petition or comparable pleading is filed after a pleading is filed in another state or a foreign country only if: (1) the petition or comparable pleading in this s…

Continuing, Exclusive Jurisdiction to Modify Child-Support Order. (a) A tribunal of this state that has issued a child-support order consistent with the law of this state has and shall exercise continuing, exclusive jurisdiction to modify its child-support order if the order is t…

Continuing Jurisdiction to Enforce Child-Support Order. (a) A tribunal of this state that has issued a child-support order consistent with the law of this state may serve as an initiating tribunal to request a tribunal of another state to enforce: (1) the order if the order is th…

Determination of Controlling Child-Support Order. (a) If a proceeding is brought under this Act and only one tribunal has issued a child-support order, the order of that tribunal controls and must be recognized. (b) If a proceeding is brought under this Act, and two or more child…

Child-Support Orders for Two or More Obligees. In responding to registrations or petitions for enforcement of two or more child-support orders in effect at the same time with regard to the same obligor and different individual obligees, at least one of which was issued by a tribu…

Credit for Payments. A tribunal of this state shall credit amounts collected for a particular period pursuant to any child-support order against the amounts owed for the same period under any other child-support order for support of the same child issued by a tribunal of this sta…

Application of Act to Nonresident Subject to Personal Jurisdiction. A tribunal of this state exercising personal jurisdiction over a nonresident in a proceeding under this Act, under other law of this state relating to a support order, or recognizing a foreign support order may r…