Dej v. Ghb

631 S.W.2d 113
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 16, 1982
DocketWD 32604
StatusPublished

This text of 631 S.W.2d 113 (Dej v. Ghb) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dej v. Ghb, 631 S.W.2d 113 (Mo. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

631 S.W.2d 113 (1982)

In the Interest of: D.E.J., J.C.D., M.M.S., Respondents,
v.
G.H.B., Appellant.

No. WD 32604.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District.

March 16, 1982.

Theodore M. Kranitz, Kranitz & Kranitz, St. Joseph, for appellant.

Robert B. Randolph, St. Joseph, for respondents.

Before KENNEDY, P. J., and SHANGLER and WASSERSTROM, JJ.

SHANGLER, Judge.

The natural mother appeals the orders by the circuit court of Buchanan County to terminate parental right to each of her three children, DEJ, JCD and MMS. Each of the children was the offspring of a different father and only the boy JCD was of legitimate wedlock. The genetic fathers do not appeal the orders of termination and the adjudications are final as to them.

*114 These proceedings came to this court for review by earlier appeal but were remanded to the court of adjudication, without determination of any substantive issue, for the entry of the factual finding § 211.482, RSMo 1978 prescribes as a predicate for a valid order of termination of parental right. [See In the Interest of D.E.J., J.C.D. and M.M.S. v. G.H.B., 609 S.W.2d 472, 474[2] (Mo.App.1980) ]. That directive of our mandate was met and the causes are in posture for appellate review.

The orders to terminate the parental rights as to each child rest on separate petitions. The ground each petition alleges to invoke the judicial power to terminate the parental right[1] conforms with § 211.447.2(2)(h)b, RSMo 1978:

§ 211.447.2: The juvenile court may, upon a petition filed by the juvenile officer, terminate the rights of parent to a child if it finds that such termination is in the best interest of the child and one or more of the following conditions are found to exist:
(2) When it appears by clear, cogent and convincing evidence that one or more of the following conditions exist:
* * * * * *
(h) The child has come under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court pursuant to the provisions of subdivision (1), paragraph (a), (b) or (c) of section 211.031, and pursuant to an order of the court under section 211.181, and thereafter:
* * * * * *
b. The custody of the child has not been with his parents for six months or longer, or the child has been under the jurisdiction of the court for one year or longer, immediately prior to the filing of the petition to terminate, and the parent has failed, on a continuing basis, to rectify the conditions which formed the basis of the petition filed under section 211.031, and the order entered under section 211.181, and there is reasonable cause to believe that the parent will not, even if given more time, rectify those conditions on a continuing basis, and that the juvenile officer, division of family services or other agency has used reasonable, diligent and continuing efforts to aid the parent to rectify the conditions, and provide on a continuing basis a proper home for the child. [emphasis added]

The conditions which induced juvenile court jurisdiction over each child under §§ 211.031 and 211.181 in the first instance was, according to those several petitions and orders:

that the natural mother [parents] [have] failed to provide care, custody, and support [so that] this child ... is in need of the care and protection of the Court.[2]

It is these conditions which the subsequent petitions to terminate the parental relations allege remain unrectified, and it is these conditions which the orders of the court adjudicate as grounds to terminate the right of the parents to each of the children.

The boy JCD [born on June 9, 1970] was adjudicated a ward of the juvenile court on April 11, 1973, and ordered into the temporary custody of the Division of Family Services for foster home placement, where *115 he remains. The girl MMS [born on January 12,1974] and the boy DEJ [born on May 21, 1975] were adjudicated wards of the juvenile court on October 29, 1975, and ordered into the temporary custody of the Division of Family Services for foster home placement, where they remain. [Thus, for most of their lives, the children have been removed from parental custody.] These formal orders also directed, in various terms, the Division of Family Services to "work with the mother and child in anticipation of returning the child to his mother when she has established a suitable home and environment to properly care for the child."

The mother G was twenty-eight years of age at the date of the termination proceeding.[3] Her domestic career spanned five marriages interspersed with episodes of concupiscence. One of the marriages was bigamous, albeit not as her witting act. Two of her three children were born out of wedlock.

The first marriage was to JRD and produced her only legitimate child, the son JCD [born June 9, 1970]. G separated from husband JRD in October of 1970. Then in January of 1971 G married JWJ. They separated and G thereupon took up residence and cohabitation with NS. G became pregnant by NS, separated from him, and in May of 1973 traveled to Oregon to be with JWJ, still the legitimate husband. G gave birth to her second child, the girl MMS [on January 12, 1974], then returned to Missouri and bore another child [on May 21, 1975].[4] G, with daughter MMS and son DEJ in menage, resumed domestic intimacy with NS in September of 1975. NS abused G and the children. G was prompted to go to California and so relinquished the children MMS and DEJ to the Division of Family Services. The juvenile court in due course assumed jurisdiction over the children MMS and DEJ by the separate petitions and orders [already described] brought and adjudicated on October 29, 1975, under §§ 211.031 and 211.181.

The mother G returned to Missouri and resumed domestic relations with N.[5] In that interim, G was convicted for fraudulent checks and in February of 1976 was jailed and given probation. NS about then was also committed, but to a Colorado prison. Then, in November of 1976, G suffered revocation of probation for failure to make restitution and was recommitted. G was released from jail on that sentence in February of 1977. Then in July of 1977 G married DG, whom she met while in service of the fraudulent check term. DG was taken into police custody soon thereafter, and that liaison ended.[6] G was married to fifth husband GB at the time of the termination proceedings in May of 1979 under our review.

The complaint which brought the firstborn JCD to the attention of the juvenile court in March of 1973—and then culminated in the order to terminate the parental right—was a complaint of physical abuse. That was not the first episode of neglect or *116 want of maternal care for that child. As early as September of 1972, when JCD was two years old, the mother G simply left the child with her former husband [and father of the boy] JRD and his then wife for their permanent care. The state of the child [vermin-ridden and excessively dirty] was such as to prompt complaint to the juvenile court office. Then, in November of 1972 the mother G informed the juvenile court she intended to commit herself to the State Hospital from fear she would harm her son and was granted permission to place the boy in foster care.[7]

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Bluebook (online)
631 S.W.2d 113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dej-v-ghb-moctapp-1982.