Department of Human Services v. D. A. S.

323 P.3d 484, 261 Or. App. 538
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 5, 2014
Docket12JV0015; Petition Number 021012AS; A154493
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 323 P.3d 484 (Department of Human Services v. D. A. S.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Human Services v. D. A. S., 323 P.3d 484, 261 Or. App. 538 (Or. Ct. App. 2014).

Opinion

EGAN, J.

Father appeals from a juvenile court judgment after a permanency hearing relating to his daughter, A, assigning error to the court’s continuation of the permanency plan of reunification and denial of his motion to dismiss jurisdiction and terminate the wardship. We conclude that the record is legally insufficient to support the juvenile court’s finding that the bases for continued jurisdiction persisted. The grounds for jurisdiction recited by the juvenile court did not pose a current threat of serious loss or injury to A that is reasonably likely to be realized. Therefore, we reverse and remand with instructions to terminate the wardship.1

The parties do not request that we exercise our discretion to review the facts of this case de novo, ORS 19.415 (3)(b), and we decline to do so. ORAP 5.40(8)(a). Thus, we view the evidence “as supplemented and buttressed by permissible derivative inferences, in the light most favorable to the trial court’s [determination] and assess whether, when so viewed, the record was legally sufficient to permit that outcome.” Dept. of Human Services v. N. P., 257 Or App 633, 639, 307 P3d 444 (2013).

Pursuant to that standard, we recite the facts consistently with the juvenile court’s expressed and implied findings. Father was a resident of the State of Washington when A was removed from mother’s care in Oregon in February 2012.2 DHS petitioned the juvenile court to take jurisdiction over A, pursuant to ORS 419B.100(l)(c).3 Father stipulated to the juvenile court’s jurisdiction based on the following pertinent facts:

[541]*541“g) Further, DHS spoke with [father] on February 24, 2012 [,] and he stated his [wife] currently has an open DHS case in Douglas County as to her two children * * *. [Those] children *** are not in [wife’s] care due to [DHS] intervention, although Washington State Child Welfare has determined it would be safe for their newborn son, [G], [t]o remain in their care.
“h) Further, [wife]’s *** two children were removed from her care in 2009 due to the condition of her home, domestic violence, and [wife]’s drug use.
* * * *
“j) [S]ince splitting up with [mother] in September 2010, [father] has not been able to have very much contact with [A]. He last had a facet-]to[-]face visit approximately eight months ago in California. [Father] and [A] need the assistance of DHS to help them reestablish their relationship.
“k) Further, [father] does not have custody of [A] and would be unable to protect her from [mother]’s drug use and neglect.”

Before the Oregon juvenile court assumed jurisdiction over A, the Washington Department of Social and Health Services (WDSHS) had opened a dependency case for father’s youngest child, G, in Washington. G was initially placed in the custody of wife’s grandmother, but father and wife shared a residence with G and wife’s grandmother at all times. G was returned to the custody of his parents, and all three then moved to a separate residence while the WDSHS dependency case remained open.

In July and December 2012, to enable placement of A with father, DHS requested that WDSHS complete a home study of father’s home through the Interstate Compact for the Placement of Children (ICPC). On both occasions, WDSHS summarily denied father approval as a placement resource, without completing a home study. WDSHS closed its dependency case relating to G in February 2013. In March 2013, father participated in a parent-child interaction facilitated by DHS, which yielded positive results, such that the evaluator recommended that DHS place A with father. In April 2013, DHS again asked WDSHS to evaluate father’s [542]*542home.4 Father also successfully maintained ongoing telephone contact with A, and he and wife travelled to Oregon to have face-to-face visits with A once per month.

In May 2013, the juvenile court held a permanency hearing. DHS requested that the court continue the permanency plan of reunification with father. As relevant here, father’s attorney filed a motion to dismiss jurisdiction and terminate the wardship. Father argued that he had ameliorated the adjudicated bases for jurisdiction, and to the extent that any of the jurisdictional bases persisted, they did not expose A to a current threat of serious loss or injury that was likely to be realized.

DHS’s primary argument at the hearing in support of continuing jurisdiction was that more time was necessary to obtain a home study through the Washington ICPC so that DHS could place A with father. DHS also argued that the facts on which dependency jurisdiction had been based, as to father, persisted.

No sworn testimony was offered at the permanency hearing. DHS offered 22 exhibits, all of which were received into evidence without objection. Much of the evidence presented focused on mother’s past drug and alcohol use, mother’s sporadic progress at engaging in recommended services, general information regarding the WDSHS case relating to G and the Douglas County cases relating to wife’s two older children, a recent incident involving wife in which she spoke to her two older children in an inappropriate manner during a visit, the successful parent-child interaction between father and A, father’s and wife’s ongoing positive contact, and A’s recent behavioral issues in which she had begun acting out in response to visits with mother.

With regard to the jurisdictional basis that A’s conditions or circumstances are endangered due to the Douglas County cases — i.e., paragraph “g” and paragraph “h” — DHS submitted minimal evidence, providing only that [543]*543those children were removed from wife’s custody and care in 2009, due to the condition of her home, domestic violence, and drug use. Reportedly, at the time of the permanency hearing, the Douglas County cases were close to finalization. Wife planned to consent to placement of the children with a relative in Oregon in a permanent guardianship. A’s DHS caseworker was investigating whether wife presented any safety concerns to A by contacting the Douglas County caseworkers, but she had not received adverse information to present to the court at the time of the hearing.

At the close of the hearing, the juvenile court denied father’s motion to dismiss jurisdiction and terminate the wardship, finding as follows:

“So, the other Motion that I have pending is the Motion to Dismiss. And I’m going to deny the Motion to Dismiss. * * * I do agree with the State’s argument that several of the concerns identified in the Amended Petition have not yet been ameliorated.
“One is Letter (k), where it alleges that [father] does not have [a] Custody Order at this point in time. I indicated earlier that he could certainly file for Custody. I encourage him to do that. My understanding of the law * * * js * * * he can’t yet get a Status Quo Order because the child has not been with him for three months.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
323 P.3d 484, 261 Or. App. 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-human-services-v-d-a-s-orctapp-2014.