Department of Human Services v. T.L.

403 P.3d 488, 287 Or. App. 753, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 1066
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedSeptember 13, 2017
Docket110440J; Petition Number 110440J02; A163309
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 403 P.3d 488 (Department of Human Services v. T.L.) 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. T.L., 403 P.3d 488, 287 Or. App. 753, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 1066 (Or. Ct. App. 2017).

Opinion

DUNCAN, J. pro tempore

In this juvenile dependency case, father appeals the juvenile court’s judgment that changed the permanency plan for his daughter, M, from reunification to adoption. As required for such a change, the juvenile court concluded that the Department of Human Services (DHS) had made reasonable efforts to make it possible for M to safely return home, but that father had not made sufficient progress to make it possible for her to do so. Assessments of DHS’s efforts and a parent’s progress must be made in light of the bases for the juvenile court’s jurisdiction. Here, the sole basis for the juvenile court’s jurisdiction over M, as to father, was father’s substance abuse. At the time of the permanency hearing at issue, it was undisputed that father had successfully remediated his substance abuse problem. The juvenile court’s concern at the hearing was M’s estrangement from father. The attorneys for DHS, M, and father informed the juvenile court that it could not change M’s permanency plan based on the estrangement because it was not an adjudicated jurisdictional basis. The juvenile court disagreed and changed the plan. Because, as explained below, the juvenile court erred by changing the plan based on facts extrinsic to the jurisdictional judgment, we reverse and remand.

Whether a juvenile court erred by relying on facts extrinsic to a jurisdictional judgment “is a legal question that we review for errors of law.” Dept. of Human Services v. G. E., 243 Or App 471, 480, 260 P3d 516, adh’d to as modified on recons, 246 Or App 136, 265 P3d 53 (2011). When doing so, we review the evidence, as supplemented and buttressed by permissible derivative inferences, in the light most favorable to the juvenile 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, 639-40, 307 P3d 444 (2013).

Father has three children, R, M, and T, but only M’s permanency plan is at issue in this appeal.1 In February 2013, when M was 11 years old, DHS took protective custody of the children. In April 2013, the juvenile court asserted jurisdiction over the children based on a single allegation as to father—that “father’s current and historical use of alcohol and controlled substances interferes with his ability to provide safe, appropriate and consistent care for the child.” In the jurisdictional judgment, the juvenile court ordered father to participate in services, including a drug and alcohol evaluation, drug and alcohol treatment, random urinalyses, a psychological evaluation, and parent education classes.

In August 2013, father’s counsel failed to appear on father’s behalf at a permanency hearing, and in September 2013, based on evidence that had been presented at the August hearing, the juvenile court entered a permanency judgment changing M’s plan from reunification to guardianship. Father appealed from the judgment, asserting, among other things, that he had received inadequate assistance of counsel. We affirmed, Dept. of Human Services v. T. L., 269 Or App 454, 344 P3d 1123 (2015), but the Supreme Court reversed and remanded for the juvenile court to determine whether father was prejudiced by counsel’s absence, Dept. of Human Services v. T. L., 358 Or 679, 705, 369 P3d 1159 (2016).

In June 2016, at the hearing on remand, the parties stipulated to an order vacating the 2013 permanency judgment and reinstating the plan of reunification. By that time, M was 15 years old and had not had in-person contact with father in over two and a half years.2 Because of the lack of contact, the parties also stipulated, and the juvenile court ordered, that “DHS shall engage a reintegration therapist or an equivalent service to assist Father and Child to overcome any current feelings of estrangement or alienation.” The court then set a “short hearing” in September 2016 to review the progress of the reintegration therapy. It also set a hearing in December 2016 “to conduct a Permanency Hearing pursuant to ORS 419B.470(6)” and to hear any motion to dismiss filed by father.

In early August 2016, DHS arranged an initial meeting between father and M, but, by all accounts, the meeting did not go well. Both M and father had different expectations going into the meeting. M believed that the meeting was an opportunity for her to tell father that she did not want to engage in therapy, that she wanted to be adopted by her foster care provider (the mother of one of M’s friends), and that she wanted father to relinquish his parental rights. She also believed that her attorney and her court-appointed special advocate would be present to support her and help her facilitate the relinquishment. Father believed that the meeting would be a first step toward ongoing family therapy to build trust and develop a relationship after years of separation. At the meeting, he was surprised when M expressed her desire to be adopted and asked M to spend time with him before making that decision. M agreed, but later expressed to her therapist and foster care provider that she had felt pressured into doing so and did not want to visit with father. After the meeting, M refused to engage in further therapy with father or to have any contact with him.

At the September 2016 hearing, which is the hearing at issue in this appeal, the parties agreed that father was sober and had been for some time. He also had stable housing and full-time employment, and one of his children, R, had been returned to his care. Also at the hearing, DHS presented evidence about the meeting between M and father. M’s caseworker testified that, after the meeting, M had felt “tricked” by DHS into attending the meeting, and that father was “manipulative” and “was trying to get her to change her mind and wasn’t listening to her when she said she wanted to be adopted.” In addition, M’s therapist testified that, in asking M to agree to visit with him, it “kind of seemed like [father] was bargaining.” She explained that she “would characterize the trust relationship or the trust that [M] has for her father” as “[n]one” and that she could not “imagine that [father’s bargaining] helped build trust between them.”

M also testified:
“I don’t know I agree with respecting (indiscernible) or family counseling (indiscernible) because I haven’t seen him in two-plus years so I don’t know where anybody is going with that.
«⅜ ‡⅜‡‡
“And for me, regardless of any of it, I want to be adopted. There’s no changing my mind. There’s no so many visits before I change my mind.
“I want to be adopted. I will not change my mind.
“If I do get placed with him, you’ll never see me again. I’m not making a bluff. I’m not afraid to run. I’ve done it in the past. I do not want to be adopt—or I do not want to go back to my dad.
“I want to be adopted by not my foster provider, but my mom. She’s been there for me through all of this, even before I was with her. I want to be adopted.
“That’s it.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
403 P.3d 488, 287 Or. App. 753, 2017 Ore. App. LEXIS 1066, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-human-services-v-tl-orctapp-2017.