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FARMINGTON - Returning a 3-year-old boy to his biological father would violate the child's right to remain with his adoptive family, contends a lawyer for the adoption agency that handled the case.

Nikolas Thurnwald is challenging the adoption after the Utah Supreme Court ruled in the spring that the child was relinquished before Thurnwald could reasonably assert his paternity.

Attorney David J. Hardy, who represents LDS Family Services, said in court filings that the boy should be allowed to stay with the only parents he's known.

Thurnwald, 24, and the child's mother were not married when the boy was born in 2004.

Court papers say the pair had a rocky relationship, but they made plans to raise the child and purchased items in anticipation of the birth. They also discussed adoption under pressure from the girl's family, court papers said.

When the boy was born, the mother gave up the child for adoption on the Saturday of the three-day Labor Day weekend without telling Thurnwald, court papers said.

Thurnwald, of Syracuse, filed for paternity on the following Tuesday, the first business day for courts after the child was born. But Utah law requires unwed fathers to file for paternity rights no later than 24 hours after the child's birth.

In May, the state Supreme Court found that the law was unfair, ruling that the deadline for filing a paternity petition should be extended to the next business day if the baby is born on a weekend or a holiday.

Thurnwald, who has never met the boy, has filed a motion to dismiss the adoption.

In opposing the motion, Hardy argues that the child ''has a constitutional liberty interest in remaining with the adoptive parents.''

He has asked that a guardian ad litem - a state-funded attorney representing only the rights and interests of the child - be appointed to the case. He also wants evidence that Thurnwald is the child's father, which Hardy claims has not been submitted to the court.

Thurnwald's attorney, Daniel Drage, was on his honeymoon and could not be reached for comment Friday.

The case has been assigned to 2nd District Judge Rodney S. Page, but no hearing date has been set.