In Re Adoption/Guardianship No. 6Z000045

812 A.2d 271, 372 Md. 104, 2002 Md. LEXIS 934
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedDecember 10, 2002
Docket18, Sept. Term 2002
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 812 A.2d 271 (In Re Adoption/Guardianship No. 6Z000045) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re Adoption/Guardianship No. 6Z000045, 812 A.2d 271, 372 Md. 104, 2002 Md. LEXIS 934 (Md. 2002).

Opinions

BATTAGLIA, Judge.

Kim Lee H. (hereinafter “Ms. H.”) challenges two holdings of the Court of Special Appeals that effectively terminated her parental rights with respect to her daughter, Nakera.1 Ms. H [107]*107challenges the intermediate appellate court’s decision that the trial court, in a Termination of Parental Rights (hereinafter “TPR”) proceeding, did not err in refusing to withdraw its order waiving the parental notice requirement under Maryland Code, § 5-322 of the Family Law Article (1984, 1999 Repl.Vol.), after the court had learned Ms. H. objected to the termination of her parental rights. Secondly, Ms. H. contests the Court of Special Appeals’s conclusion that the trial court correctly determined that there was no requirement to notify of the TPR proceeding the attorney who formerly represented Ms. H. during a prior Child in Need of Assistance (hereinafter “CINA”) proceeding. Because we find that the trial court erred with regard to both issues, we reverse the decision of the Court of Special Appeals.

I. Background

On August 23, 1997, Ms. H. gave birth to a daughter, Nakera. Although some uncertainty had existed about the identity of Nakera’s father, paternity proceedings eventually established that Lawoe N. (hereinafter “Mr. N”) was the biological father. During the better part of Nakera’s first two years, Ms. H. maintained physical custody of her daughter, but did not keep a regular place of residence.

On May 20, 1999, Ms. H. reported to the Montgomery County Police that Nakera sustained an injury at the hands of Ms. H’s companion. The Montgomery County Police and Child Welfare Services of the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services (hereinafter the “Department”) investigated the report. In the course of the investigation, the Department learned that Ms. H. was homeless, that she was unwilling to stay in a shelter, and that Nakera suffered from Sickle Cell Anemia. Based on this information, the Department removed Nakera from her mother’s care on August 20,1999.

At the direction of the Department, Nakera resided briefly in the home of her maternal aunt. Thereafter, Nakera was placed with her maternal grandmother before eventually moving into the home of a licensed foster parent. On October 27, [108]*1081999, the Department placed Nakera with Ms. H.’s half sister, Valerie L. Nakera remained there until March 3, 2000 when the Department again placed her with the licensed foster parent. Soon after this last placement, the District Court of Maryland, sitting in Montgomery County, in its capacity as Juvenile Court (hereinafter the “Juvenile Court”), on March 13, 2000, adjudicated Nakera a CINA. Ms. H. did not attend the CINA adjudication.

After being separated from Nakera, Ms. H. apparently disappeared. According to the Department’s April 6, 2000 .status report to the Juvenile Court, the Department had no record of Ms. H.’s whereabouts since October 29, 1999. The report also indicated that Ms. H. and the Department communicated on only a few occasions between October 29, 1999 and April 3, 2000. The first of these communications occurred on October 29, 1999 when Ms. H. arrived at the Department without an appointment. During a meeting with a social worker at that time, Ms. H. expressed her desire to be reunified with her daughter but, according to the report, refused to provide an address or telephone number to the Department. The other communications did not take place until after the CINA adjudication, almost five months later. On March 16, 2000, Ms. H. contacted the Department by phone and arranged to meet, in person, with a social worker on March 20, 2000. Ms. H. explained, during the phone conversation, that she would give the social worker her contact information at the scheduled meeting. The meeting, however, never took place because Ms. H. called the Department on March 20 and cancelled.

Although Ms. H. did not attend the CINA proceedings, she did receive legal representation during the period between August 1999 and April 2000 from attorney Leah Darring (hereinafter “Ms. Darring”)of the Office of the Public Defender. On August 26, 1999, Ms. Darring entered her appearance on behalf of Ms. H. On that day, she filed a Request for Discovery in response to the Department’s Shelter Care Petition in which it alleged Nakera was a CINA. On January 4, 2000, Ms. Darring filed a motion to strike her appearance [109]*109from the case. On January 10, she filed a request for an order of discovery in Nakera’s CIÑA case. On March 20, 2000, Ms. Darring arrived at the Department to attend the meeting with the social worker that Ms. H. had arranged but later cancelled. On April 13, 2000, exactly one month after Nakera had been adjudicated a CINA, the Juvenile Court granted Ms. Darring’s motion to strike her appearance.

After Nakera spent several more months in foster care, the Department, on December 4, 2000, filed a petition for guardianship, which if granted, would terminate the parental rights of Nakera’s biological father and mother. The Juvenile Court then, on the same day, issued show cause orders for Nakera’s parents and ordered the Department to serve the orders upon the parents. The court issued the show cause orders pursuant to Maryland Code, § 5-322(b) of the Family Law Article (1984, 1999 Repl.Vol.), to inform Nakera’s parents that the Department was seeking to terminate their parental rights and that they had the right to object to the proceedings.2 The show cause order stated that, upon receipt of the order, the parents had thirty days within which to object to the Department’s petition.

In compliance with the court’s order, the Department, to no avail, made several efforts to contact Ms. H. On March 26, 2001, the Department filed a Motion to Waive Notice to Ms. H., on the ground that it could not locate her to serve the show cause order. In support of the motion, the Department filed an affidavit detailing its efforts to locate and contact Ms. H. throughout the previous months. The Department attempted unsuccessfully to telephone Ms. H. at two numbers that Ms. H., at one time, had indicated were her places of employment. Attempting to obtain contact information, the Department checked with other Montgomery County human service agencies, the Maryland State Department of Correc[110]*110tions, the Montgomery County Detention Center, Nakera’s father, the Juvenile Court, Valerie L., Ms. H.’s step-grandmother, and the telephone directories for Montgomery County and the District of Columbia. None of these sources provided the Department with useful information about Ms. H.’s whereabouts.

The Department’s affidavit also reflected the efforts of its private process server in trying to locate Ms. H. The private process server had attempted to serve Ms. H. at the address on file with the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration. He had no success. Next, he obtained a forwarding address from the post office, to which he sent a Notice to Serve Court Papers by certified mail. On the mailing, the private process server hand wrote a note that stated: “Kim: Nakera [] is being placed into permanent guardianship — Your parental rights are being terminated. You have a right to object to this. Please call and leave a message [with] phone [number].

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In Re Adoption/Guardianship No. 6Z000045
812 A.2d 271 (Court of Appeals of Maryland, 2002)

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Bluebook (online)
812 A.2d 271, 372 Md. 104, 2002 Md. LEXIS 934, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-adoptionguardianship-no-6z000045-md-2002.