H. v. Children's Services Division

522 P.2d 225, 17 Or. App. 395
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMay 20, 1974
DocketNo. 4622; No. 73-186
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 522 P.2d 225 (H. v. Children's Services Division) 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
H. v. Children's Services Division, 522 P.2d 225, 17 Or. App. 395 (Or. Ct. App. 1974).

Opinion

LANGTRY, J.

Dr. -, a physician, and his wife appeal from orders of the court denying their petition to adopt baby-and making the same child a ward [397]*397of the juvenile court and committing baby to Children’s Services Division. Hereafter, the adoption petitioners will be referred to as wife and husband respectively, and Children’s Services Division will be referred to as CSD.

The baby was born February 14, 1973 and its unwed mother consented to its adoption by petitioners the next day. Petitioners immediately took the child to their home. They filed for adoption on February 20, 1973. A different petition alleging that the adoptive petitioners had subjected the same baby to “cruelty and unexplained physical injury * * *” dated May 11, 1973 was filed by a CSD caseworker in the juvenile court, a department of the circuit court. On the same day an order was entered in that court and case requiring the baby to be taken into custody and placed in appropriate shelter care. On May 18 a short hearing was held and an order was entered returning the child to the care of petitioners, pending the upcoming trial, on the representation that some other responsible person would be at all times with wife and baby when husband was not present.

On June 20 and 22, 1973 orders were entered respectively in the adoption and juvenile court cases consolidating them for trial pursuant to ORS 419.559. The court also appointed counsel for the baby. The consolidated trial was conducted on several days over a period of about two months, and on September 5, 1973 the court entered its orders finding that wife had subjected baby to cruelty and physical injury and had failed to provide the baby with the care, guidance and protection necessary for its physical well-being. The order in the juvenile court case found the baby to be within the jurisdiction of the court and com[398]*398mitted it to CSD for foster-home placement forthwith. The order in the adoption proceeding found that petitioners are not sufficiently able to bring up the child and to furnish suitable nurture and care. The adoption was denied and the court also ordered that no stay or delay in the orders would be allowed.

The orders were appealed to this court and, after a short temporary stay in effectiveness of the orders until this court could consider the matter, a further stay was refused. Petitioners then sought a mandate from the Supreme Court to require this court to enter a stay but that too was refused.

The petitioners’ assignments of error are: The court erred (1) in failing to strike and in considering as evidence a police report; (2) in considering extrajudicial information; (3) in consolidating the adoption case with the juvenile proceeding; (4) in finding there is juvenile court jurisdiction; (5) in findings on petitioners’ abilities as adoptive parents; and (6) in findings on the propriety of the adoption and in denying the petition for adoption.

The record evidence discloses that husband at the time of the adoption petition was 57 years old, divorced from his first wife and the father of two grown children. Wife was 31 years old and had not previously been married. Husband had had a vasectomy and after his new marriage sought unsuccessfully to reverse it.

Petitioners sought to adopt a child and found baby through contact with another physician. The opportunity to take the baby came suddenly and interrupted vacation plans which petitioners had made. Wife had only two or three days to prepare for taking [399]*399the baby. Husband was busy with his medical practice. Wife had help from a lady with her household tasks for about one month of the first two-and-one-half months she had the baby.

Wife quickly became frustrated with the needs of the baby, combined with other demands upon her time which involved doing some office work for her husband and some tutoring which she had previously undertaken. This frustration resulted in several spankings described as “tappings” upon baby’s bottom through diapers and some minor “shakings” of the baby, starting when the baby was about one month old. Wife was alarmed at her own conduct and contacted a physician friend who suggested she see a group therapist who had been working with that physician. Consultation with the therapist resulted in his request for her to give him information about her dreams. He expressed to wife the thought that she was covering up great anger.

The day after her second therapy session, May 2, 1973, wife again struck the baby, who was two-and-one-half months old. Her testimony in this regard was:

“Q. And you hit her with your right hand?
“A. Yes.
“Q. The medical reports — the adoption report which was the supplemental adoption report indicates that after the pediatrician examined her he observed some contusions on the right cheek and below the right eye.
“A. Yes
“Q. Could you explain that to me, if you hit her with the right hand and she was facing you as you explained that to me ?
“A. Yes, I can. My hand went like that (indicating).
[400]*400“Q. Oh, you backhanded her?
“A. The back of my hand, yes.”

After this episode wife became frightened and called the therapist who got both wife and husband together with him. The therapist insisted upon someone else being in the home. The therapist reported the incident in such a way that a police investigation resulted, and a second adoption report and the above-mentioned petition in juvenile court were filed. The pediatrician who examined the child described the mark on the child’s face from the blow as being minimal but nevertheless a one- to two-inch discoloration.

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Related

D. v. State ex rel. Children's Services Division
538 P.2d 947 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1975)

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Bluebook (online)
522 P.2d 225, 17 Or. App. 395, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/h-v-childrens-services-division-orctapp-1974.