Transcript and translation

English translation

Maja Petrović: selected statements from Vera’s dossier used to defend adoption — CSR submission dated 22 December 2025

CSR archive submission P2.1435/24 — 22 December 2025

Full translation of the submission on the first two pages of the supplied 15-page file. Its heading and closing date are 22 December 2025; the court receipt stamp is dated 24 December 2025. The new public PDF contains these two submission pages. The historical attachments are identified below and linked to the existing dossier. The source’s party labels, quotations, dates and name variants are preserved.

Source page 1

REPUBLIC OF SERBIA
AP VOJVODINA
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL WORK OF THE CITY OF NOVI SAD

Novi Sad, Zmaj Ognjena Vuka 13
Telephone: 021/210-1400
Email: [email protected]
Number: 560-111-1/2024
Date: 22 December 2025

BASIC COURT IN NOVI SAD
Case no. P2.1435/24

Plaintiff: Centre for Social Work of the City of Novi Sad, Zmaj Ognjena Vuka 13, Novi Sad.

Defendant: Milan Petrović, of Kragujevac, Kraljevačkog bataljona Street no. 110.

SUBMISSION

In accordance with the ruling of the Basic Court in Novi Sad, case no. P2.1435/24, of 26 November 2025, the defendant provides documentation obtained from the archive, namely:

  1. Copy of the file cover, Miletić Cvita Milivoj, registration no. 3871/79, no. UP 03-335/79;
  2. Foster-family questionnaire for Julka Vizmet;
  3. Family-placement agreement no. 05-320/6, of 25 April 1979;
  4. Copy of the decision of the Self-Managing Community of Interest for Social Protection in Novi Sad, no. Up-3-355/79, of 16 April 1979;
  5. Copy of the decision of the Self-Managing Community of Interest for Social Protection in Novi Sad, no. Up-3-356/79, of 5 July 1979;
  6. Contact and case-work monitoring sheet for Miletić Milivoj, no. 3871/79;
  7. Personal record of a social-protection service user, no. 3871, of 10 April 1979.

The documentation supplied indisputably shows that the plaintiff, then the minor Milivoje Miletić, was a child without parental care who needed family-law protection, and that adoption was assessed as the best form of protection, given that the mother had abandoned the child, the child’s paternity had not been established, and that after the death of Pál Lakatoš, who had allegedly passed himself off as the child’s father, none of his close relatives wanted to assume care of the child. That the relatives did not want to assume care of the child can clearly be concluded from the narrative of the statement of claim on page 4, which states:

“…the lawyer Helena Uzelac very soon, specifically on 3 April 1979, ceases to be the co-heirs’ representative, of which

[The quoted passage continues on source page 2.]

Court receipt stamp visible on page 1

BASIC COURT IN NOVI SAD
Sent by registered post on: [field blank]
“Рно”: [field blank]
Received in person / by post (registered / ordinary): [printed alternatives, no method selected]
Date: 24 December 2025
Copies and attachments: [fields blank]
Fees paid / no fee: [printed fields, no entry]
Time: [field blank]
Signature: [field blank]

Source page 2

she informs the probate court, and the co-heirs then retain a new representative who succeeds, through an appeal allowed by the second-instance court, in overturning the first-instance judicial decision by which the minor Miletić Milivoj was declared a co-heir of Pál Lakatoš to a quarter of the estate. The grounds of the appeal concerned the fact that kinship with the deceased—paternity—had not been established in the manner prescribed by law.”

The fact that Milivoj Miletić was a child deprived of parental and family care also follows from the contact and case-work monitoring sheet, particularly the entry of 6 April 1979, where it states, among other things:

“Establishing the circumstances of prenatal and postnatal development—during pregnancy the mother led a disorderly life. After childbirth he lived with his mother for a short time, when she abandoned him. He was brought up by Pál Lakatoš, who claims to be the child’s natural father, but this is unlikely because Cvita lived with several men at the same time.”

“Establishing the manifestations of the origin and development of the problem: after the death of the child’s natural father, the child was left without parental care.”

Based on the entry of 16 April 1979, it is established that care of the minor Milivoj was taken over by Pál Lakatoš’s sister, Julka Vizmet, who lived in Irig, and that she agreed to care for the child for payment as a foster carer, which constitutes a temporary form of protection.

In view of all the above, the defendant maintains all its previous statements and again emphasizes that it opposes the action and the claim as formulated, because grounds for annulment of the adoption did not exist at the time it was established, in accordance with the provisions of the Law on Adoption adopted by the Assembly of the Socialist Autonomous Province of Vojvodina at the session of the Council of the Municipality on 23 September 1976 and at the session of the Socio-Political Council on 23 September 1976, no. 01-551/1976.

In Novi Sad, 22 December 2025.

For the defendant, by authorization

Maja Petrović, law graduate

[Official institutional seal and signature]

Existing historical attachments and source boundaries

Pages 3–15 of the supplied file correspond to physical pages 1–13 of the already archived Vera Radovanović dossier 3871/79: the cover and inventory, the decision dated 16 April, the three-page foster-family questionnaire, the two-page agreement dated 25 April, four contact-monitoring sheets and the front of the personal record. The existing complete 14-page PDF and confirmed English reading remain available.

The supplied annex set does not include the personal record’s reverse, which is physical page 14 of the existing dossier. Nor is a separate copy of the listed decision Up-3-356/79 of 5 July 1979 visible among those thirteen scans. This describes the supplied file, not what was or was not filed with the court. The monitoring-sheet entry about delivery on 5 July does not by itself identify that particular decision.

Editorial notes on the printed submission

The heading again labels CSR as plaintiff and Milan Petrović as defendant; the body and signature describe CSR as the defendant. These labels are preserved. The submission attributes its quoted passage to 6 April; the existing confirmed transcription places that passage under 8 April. The confirmed handwriting transcription has not been changed. The printed name Vizmet is a variant of the already identified Julka Vizmeg.

Later author’s note

The author regards this submission as crowning evidence supporting his case and describes his joy on reading it. He believes that Maja selected the parts she thought served her position, expecting him not to decipher Vera’s handwriting. This is his interpretation of their intention, separate from the words of the submission. The comparison remains available through the existing, previously confirmed transcription of Vera’s notes.

Comments on source passages (12)

Submission 22 December; court receipt 24 December

The heading and closing date are 22 December 2025, while the court receipt stamp on page 1 records 24 December. The document is dated 26 days after the hearing of 26 November; court receipt follows that hearing by 28 days. These are separate document and receipt dates, relevant to reading the 30-day archive-production order.

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CSR again labelled as plaintiff

The heading identifies CSR as plaintiff and Milan Petrović as defendant, whereas the opening and signature correctly describe CSR as the defendant. Maja Petrović signs both this submission of 22 December and the preceding response of 27 November, whose heading is also reversed. The repetition makes it necessary to check who is responsible for each statement; the labels do not change the actual procedural roles.

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Listed 355/79 versus confirmed 335/79

Item 4 lists Up-3-355/79 dated 16 April, while the confirmed existing dossier records that act as Up-03-335/79; the cover in item 1 also bears 335/79. Item 5 separately lists Up-3-356/79 dated 5 July. No separate copy of that July act is visible among the thirteen supplied historical scans. Vera’s entry of 5 July says that the adoption decision was delivered, without identifying its number; that entry must not be equated with the listed Up-3-356/79. The existing complete dossier remains the source for checking the inventory.

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The child cried over the name change Pal → Milivoj

The monitoring sheet also records the child’s own reaction: on 16 April he cried on hearing that his name was Milivoj, because he had been called Pal; the foster carer was advised to call him by his name. The next entry says he was later happy to say that he was called Mišo. This is a direct record of a name change and the child’s experience before the adoption of 21 June. The submission deriving the best protection from that sheet does not address this part. The author links it to his argument of violent assimilation.

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The mother is recorded in insurance and the personal record

Alongside the abandonment assertion, Vera’s entry of 5 April records a validated health card and insurance through the mother, who was registered with the employment community of interest. The personal record’s reverse on physical page 14 of the existing complete dossier records Cvita’s name and an address in Novi Sad. That page is not among this new package’s thirteen historical scans. Those recorded details permit a concrete examination of the search for the mother, notification and consent; the submission does not address them. A recorded address alone does not prove that anything was served on her.

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Omitted records of a healthy and well-cared-for child

On the same page of Vera’s dossier as the quoted passage, the entry of 8 April describes the child as physically and mentally normally developed, healthy, well cared for and clean. The entry of 19 April again describes a well-fed and cared-for child who had settled into the foster family. Those records show the actual condition and existing care arrangement, which this submission leaves out of its explanation of the best protection. The child’s good condition and the need for protection are separate questions; neither alone replaces the requirements for adoption.

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Probate representation is not a decision about child care

Maja Petrović infers that the relatives did not want to assume care from the lawyer’s withdrawal. Helena Uzelac’s original letter of 3 April concerns mutually agreed termination of representation of the specific heir Roža Kopljan. That is a lawyer–client relationship in probate, not a declaration by all relatives about care. The probate record of 19 March places the child with the late Pál’s parents and proposes a guardian to protect his interests in the estate. The appeal about legal paternity must be read within that procedural setting, separately from actual family care.

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The quoted passage belongs to 8 April

Maja Petrović attributes the quotation to the entry of 6 April. In the existing transcription of Vera’s sheet, personally confirmed by the author, those quoted passages appear under 8 April 1979 on physical page 10 of the dossier. The foster-family questionnaire is separately dated 6 April. The submission’s date discrepancy is not resolved by changing the older confirmed transcription.

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Unestablished legal paternity and a known natural father

The submission refers to unestablished paternity and Pál allegedly claiming to be the father, then quotes the natural father’s death and identifies his sister. Formal judicial establishment of paternity differs from knowledge and acknowledgment of a biological father. In divorce case P.1642/76, Pál personally says he had a son with Cvita, while his wife Vera Lakatoš refers to his son with another woman; the probate record also notes his acknowledgment of the child alongside the absence of judicially established paternity. These specific records cannot be reduced to unknown parentage merely because legal registration remained unresolved.

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An old stigmatizing assertion is not proof of paternity

In 2025, CSR quotes Vera’s assertion that Cvita lived with several men to support an assessment that Pál’s paternity was unlikely. This response identifies neither evidence for that assertion nor a procedure by which it excluded paternity. Immediately afterwards, the same older record calls Pál the natural father. The submission’s opening word indisputably turns old assertions about the mother into a conclusive argument for adoption without answering the specific records about the father and mother in the linked material.

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The father’s sister assumed care

Page 1 asserts that none of the close relatives wanted to assume care, yet this passage identifies Pál’s sister as having done so. Vera’s confirmed entry of 16 April describes Julka Vizmeg, already known to the child, her agreement to provide care for regular payment and the health card handed to her. The placement decision and agreement specify paid foster care. Payment and its temporary nature explain the form of care; they do not erase the relative’s actual care or establish that no relative wanted to provide it.

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The best-protection assessment does not answer adoption requirements

Maja Petrović’s conclusion that no annulment grounds existed rests on selected descriptions of parentage and care. This response identifies neither the mother’s consent nor a concrete record of the search and satisfaction of the requirements challenged in the author’s submission of 27 October. The original act of 21 June shows what was recorded and decided then; the December assessment that adoption was the best protection does not itself resolve those separate questions. In the linked submission, the author explains the void adoption and violent assimilation.

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