This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2007, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Posted: 8:10 AM- FARMINGTON - The Utah Supreme Court gave a Utah man the right to challenge the adoption of his son, which he argued was done before he could reasonably file for paternity.

But now the adoption agency says the rights of the nearly 3-year-old child would be violated if the boy was removed from the only home he's known.

Nikolas Thurnwald argued that he and the child's mother made plans to keep the child. But under pressure from her family, the woman gave the child up for adoption shortly after birth.

Thurnwald filed for paternity in 2004 on the first business day after the child was born. But that was after the 24-hour deadline set for unwed fathers because of a weekend and the Labor Day holiday.

After Thurnwald's Supreme Court victory that found the rules were unfair, a motion to dismiss the adoption was filed.

But an attorney for LDS Family Services, which handled the adoption, says the child shouldn't be removed from his adoptive home.

The attorney also wants proof Thurnwald is the father and that he paid a reasonable amount of the expenses of the mother's pregnancy and childbirth.