On November 16, 1999, after eight years of litigation, the landmark legal case that established in New York the cause of action of "wrongful adoption" will go to trial. The plaintiffs, Martin and Phyllis Juman, are suing Louise Wise Services, the adoption agency through which they adopted their son, Michael, for intentionally misrepresenting the extreme psychiatric history of Michael's birth parents.
The Jumans adopted their son Michael through Louise Wise Services in 1966. The agency told them little about Michael's birth mother and nothing about his birth father. What they were told was that the birth mother was intelligent and hardworking; that she had been engaged to be married, but her fiancé died suddenly of a heart attack; that she imprudently entered into a short-term relationship with Michael's birth father; and that, as a result, the woman encountered "some emotional difficulty" for which she sought professional help.
Thirty-one years later, and only after a court ordered it to do so, Louise Wise finally provided the Jumans with adoption records revealing the truth. Michael's birth mother, after being lobotomized years before Michael's birth, had spent most of her adult life in a state mental institution, suffering from schizophrenia. His birth father was a fellow patient at the mental institution. Tragically for the Jumans and Michael, this shocking disclosure occurred two years after their son Michael died of causes connected to his own battle with schizophrenia.
Growing up in Merrick, Michael Juman was a good student and an excellent athlete. He was a pitcher on his high school baseball team. Early in his senior year, Michael began to feel depressed and suicidal. After confiding in his parents, he began to meet regularly with a psychologist and later, a psychiatrist.
Michael's condition continued to worsen. In November 1985, at the behest of Michael's psychiatrist, Martin Juman contacted Louise Wise requesting additional information about Michael's birth parents that could possibly shed some light on Michael's condition. Responding to that request, Barbara Miller, the coordinator of post-adoption services for Louise Wise, wrote a letter to Michael's psychiatrist in which she reaffirmed the fabrications told to the Jumans 20 years earlier. Failing to reveal Michael's birth mother's schizophrenia, Ms. Miller stated only that she "had a history of episodic depressions for which she was treated psychiatrically."
Louise Wise's 1985 disclosures were particularly disingenuous given the 1983 passage of New York Social Services Law § 373-a. That law requires disclosure to the adoptive parents of the medical and mental health histories of the child and the birth parents including "all information setting forth conditions or diseases believed to be hereditary, . . . and any other information, including any psychological information . . . which may be a factor influencing the child's present or future health."
Although treated with everything from drugs to electro-shock therapy over the next few years, Michael's condition deteriorated to the point where he was admitted to two different state hospitals for a total of a year-and-a-half. Just like his birth mother, Michael was diagnosed with schizophrenia, among other mental illnesses.
In 1989, searching for answers about his illness, Michael began a quest to find his birth mother. Michael contacted Barbara Miller repeatedly to learn more information about his mother, but at the instruction of the agency, she rebuffed his efforts. However, he learned that the identification number on an adoptive birth certificate is the same as the number on an original birth certificate. Armed with that knowledge, Michael began to comb through thousands of birth certificates on file at the New York Public Library. Eventually, he found a birth certificate with a matching number. It revealed his mother's name, Florence Dayboch, and the name she had given him, Bruce Dayboch.
Michael began to call all the Daybochs listed in the New York area attempting to learn the whereabouts of his mother. Michael's efforts were unsuccessful until he called Barry Dayboch and introduced himself as Florence Dayboch's son, Bruce. "Hello, cuz," Barry said. Florence Dayboch was Barry's aunt.
Michael promptly arranged a meeting, and in December 1990, Michael, his parents and his sister, Marla, went to visit Barry Dayboch at his home. After Michael explained his mental illness, Barry confided that his Aunt Florence had had mental problems as well. He told the Jumans that in the early 1960s when he was just seven or eight years old, he would accompany his parents on visits to his aunt in a psychiatric institution, but they would make him wait downstairs. Barry continued that Florence had had "some kind of operation" years before Barry had been born. After questioning by Martin, Barry admitted that she had undergone a lobotomy.
That same night, the Jumans held a family meeting. Michael, feeling that Louise Wise had deceived his parents into adopting him by hiding Florence Dayboch's mental problems, begged his parents to sue the agency. The debate was heated. Phyllis Juman expressed her concerns about the health of Martin, who had already suffered three heart attacks resulting from the stress of his son's situation, and Michael, who was still undergoing regular treatment with a psychiatrist. However, in the end, the vote was 3-1, with Phyllis being the lone dissenter, to bring a lawsuit. Concerned that his mother might later persuade his father to drop the case, Michael made his father promise that he would follow through with the suit.
In 1991, the Jumans sued Louise Wise for wrongful adoption. It was the first time such a cause of action had been brought in New York. Additionally, the Jumans subpoenaed all of Louise Wise records about Florence Dayboch and Michael's adoption. However, Louise Wise continued to balk at turning over any information about either Michael's birth mother or about his adoption, claiming that the Jumans lacked "good cause" to receive such information.
On March 11, 1994, Michael's suffering finally ended. Stopping by the apartment the Jumans had rented for Michael, Marla, Michael's sister, discovered his body. The Nassau County coroner's office determined that Michael's death was caused by either a seizure or a toxic buildup of the medications he had been taking.
It is somewhat fitting that after spending the last five years of his life looking for his birth mother, Michael's grave at Wellwood Cemetery on Long Island rests only a few hundred yards away from the grave of Florence Dayboch, who had passed away only nine months before Michael. It was the closest he ever came to her.
The above information was written by:
Deborah Lilienthal
CGI Group
777 Third Ave.
New York, NY 10017
212-537-8000
212-537-8050 (FAX)
NYSCCC Homepage Wrongful Adoption Directory New York State Citizen's Coalition for Children, Inc.
410 East Upland Road • Ithaca, NY 14850
607-272-0034 • fax 607-272-0035
office@nysccc.org
10/30/02