Couple sues lawyer over adoption

Karen Ali

The News-Times

June 11, 2004

DANBURY - A New Fairfield couple is taking a Westport adoption lawyer to court for failing to assist them with the adoption of a baby girl. Caroline and James Kelly, both 40, filed the lawsuit in Superior Court in May, alleging lawyer Maria Tomasky did not fulfill terms of a contract they signed January 2003.

They paid her $12,500, which wasn't returned when they didn't get their baby, Caroline Kelly said."It's very black and white. We signed a contract," Kelly said. "Nothing happened. Nothing." Tomasky did not return a phone call seeking comment.

The contract, which the Kellys said they signed Jan. 8, 2003, ran through Jan. 8, 2004. As part of the deal, they were to pay $12,000 when the baby came.

The contract stipulated that they would be able to adopt a baby girl, younger than 12 months old, from Romania.

The Kellys, who began dating about 21 years ago, married in 1987. They began trying to conceive in 1989, but after 10 years of fertility treatments, they gave up and decided to adopt.

Nicholas, who is now 5 years old, came into their lives from Russia in December 1999. He was 7 months old.

The Kellys went through an adoption agency called Wide Horizons for Children Inc., which they loved, and in retrospect wished they had used this time. But they didn't because new laws mandated that instead of traveling to Russia once, they would have to travel to Russia twice before the adoption could be finalized.

That was something they didn't want to do. "I didn't want to leave Nicholas," Caroline Kelly said.

They ended up contacting Tomasky, whom Caroline Kelly was referred to by another mother who was trying to adopt.

That woman didn't end up using Tomasky's services because she got pregnant, Kelly said.

Caroline Kelly isn't sure if she and her husband will ever be able to adopt another child because they can't afford it, Kelly said.

Kelly said that if she does get back the $12,500 from Tomasky, she will have to use it to pay the lawyer who is helping her with the lawsuit.

The couple have already re-financed their mortgage and used money freed up from that to put down the retainer in their agreement with Tomasky.

At this point, the couple is hoping to reach some sort of monetary settlement with Tomasky.

James Kelly is a yard foreman for a lumberyard in White Plains, N.Y.

Caroline Kelly said she stays home and takes care of Nicholas.

Kelly said she can't believe she was taken in so easily. But she and her husband were and still are desperate for another child. "It's a desperate situation when you want a child," Kelly said. "You hold onto hope."You're in such an emotional state," Kelly said.

The only time it appeared that Tomasky was close to getting them their baby was July of last year, Kelly recalled.

Kelly said that is when she went to Tomasky's home in the Southport section of Fairfield and watched a video of several babies, who were supposedly from Romania and were waiting to be adopted.

Kelly told Tomasky she was interested in the babies and asked for more information on them, but never heard back. "It just never came to anything," Kelly said.

The Kellys recently complained to the statewide Grievance Committee, which disciplines lawyers, about their problems with Tomasky.

A representative from the grievance committee said that Tomasky is on "active" status and has been a member of the state bar since June 1982. She is in good standing and has "no grievances against her."

The grievance committee doesn't consider a complaint from a client that hasn't been substantiated a "grievance."

Contact Karen Ali at kali@newstimes.com or at (203) 731-3341.