In re Adrian K.

CourtConnecticut Appellate Court
DecidedJuly 23, 2019
DocketAC42633
StatusPublished

This text of In re Adrian K. (In re Adrian K.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Connecticut Appellate Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Adrian K., (Colo. Ct. App. 2019).

Opinion

*********************************************** The “officially released” date that appears near the be- ginning of each opinion is the date the opinion will be pub- lished in the Connecticut Law Journal or the date it was released as a slip opinion. The operative date for the be- ginning of all time periods for filing postopinion motions and petitions for certification is the “officially released” date appearing in the opinion.

All opinions are subject to modification and technical correction prior to official publication in the Connecticut Reports and Connecticut Appellate Reports. In the event of discrepancies between the advance release version of an opinion and the latest version appearing in the Connecticut Law Journal and subsequently in the Connecticut Reports or Connecticut Appellate Reports, the latest version is to be considered authoritative.

The syllabus and procedural history accompanying the opinion as it appears in the Connecticut Law Journal and bound volumes of official reports are copyrighted by the Secretary of the State, State of Connecticut, and may not be reproduced and distributed without the express written permission of the Commission on Official Legal Publica- tions, Judicial Branch, State of Connecticut. *********************************************** IN RE ADRIAN K.* (AC 42633) Keller, Bright and Devlin, Js.

Syllabus

The respondent father, whose minor child, A, previously had been adjudi- cated neglected, appealed to this court from the judgment of the trial court denying his motion to dismiss an order of temporary custody and modifying the dispositive order from protective supervision with the respondent mother to commitment to the custody of the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families. After the trial court had adjudicated A neglected, it had ordered placement of A with the mother with protective supervision. The petitioner thereafter placed a ninety- six hour hold on A and filed a motion for an order of temporary custody, which was granted ex parte. The court scheduled a preliminary hearing on the order for temporary custody, and the petitioner filed a motion to modify the dispositive order from protective supervision to commitment. The trial court sustained the order of temporary custody and denied the father’s motion to dismiss, and the father appealed to this court. Held: 1. The respondent father could not prevail on his claim that the trial court improperly denied his motion to dismiss the order of temporary custody, which was based on his claim that the trial court’s subject matter jurisdic- tion ended when protective supervision expired on December 6, 2018, and that the court’s jurisdiction was not continued as a result of the petitioner’s failure to file a timely motion to modify as required under the applicable rule of practice (§ 33a-6 [c]), which provides that a motion to modify protective supervision shall be filed no later than the next business day before a preliminary hearing on an ex parte custody order: the father’s claim that the trial court’s subject matter jurisdiction was limited by § 33a-6 (c) was unavailing, as rules of practice do not and cannot create or circumscribe jurisdiction, and, thus, whether the timing requirement of § 33a-6 (c) is mandatory or directory and whether the motion to modify protective supervision was timely filed are irrelevant to the question of whether the trial court had subject matter jurisdiction to sustain the order of temporary custody; moreover, on the basis of the plain language of the relevant statute (§ 46b-129 [b]), which provides that a motion for an order of temporary custody may be granted subse- quent to the filing of a neglect petition, as had occurred in the present case, the court had jurisdiction to enter an ex parte order of temporary custody, as the neglect petition was pending when the order of temporary custody was signed, and the fact that a new petition was not filed with the motion for order of temporary custody was irrelevant, and although § 46b-129 is silent as to whether an order of temporary custody modifies an order of protective supervision, given the purposes underlying § 46b- 129 and the clear language of the statute (§ 46b-121 [b] [1]) that gives the petitioner authority to enter orders regarding the protection and proper care of a child, an order of temporary custody issued pursuant to § 46b-129 (b) necessarily suspends or interrupts a period of protective supervision, such that previously ordered protective supervision cannot expire and terminate the underlying neglect petition while the order of temporary custody is in place; accordingly, when the order of temporary custody was granted, it essentially modified the existing period of protec- tive supervision by suspending it, and the order of temporary custody, which suspended the order of protective supervision, was ongoing at the time the motion to modify was filed, and, therefore, the court had subject matter jurisdiction over the order of temporary custody when the petitioner subsequently filed the motion to modify the disposition. 2. The respondent father could not prevail on his claim that the court’s denial of his motion to dismiss violated his rights to substantive and procedural due process, which was based on his unpreserved claims that the court’s interpretation of the applicable rule of practice (§ 33a- 6 [c]) as directory rather than mandatory created jurisdiction, thereby leaving A in the petitioner’s care in violation of his right to family integrity, and deprived him of timely notice, as he failed to demonstrate the existence of a constitutional violation pursuant to State v. Golding (213 Conn. 233): because the trial court, pursuant to statute (§ 46b-129 [b]), had ongoing jurisdiction to rule on the order of temporary custody even though neither a new neglect petition nor a motion to modify had been filed by December 6, 2018, and because Practice Book § 33a-6 (c) could not confer or circumscribe the court’s jurisdiction, the father’s substantive due process rights were not violated; moreover, the court did not deprive the father of his right to family integrity and timely notice because although he has a vital interest in directing the care and custody of his biological child, the court’s decision to allow the petitioner to file a motion to modify one day late did not deprive the father of procedural due process or create a substantial risk of erroneous depriva- tion of the private interest of the father, who had notice of the ex parte order of temporary custody in advance of the preliminary hearing, was represented by counsel and had an opportunity to be heard and to contest fully the order of temporary custody and motion to modify before the court sustained the order of temporary custody and modified disposition to commitment. Argued May 29—officially released July 18, 2019**

Procedural History

Petition to adjudicate the respondents’ minor child neglected, brought to the Superior Court in the judicial district of Middletown, Juvenile Matters, where the court, Woods, J., adjudicated the child neglected and ordered protective supervision; thereafter, the court, Sanchez-Figueroa, J., issued ex parte orders granting temporary custody of the child to the petitioner; subse- quently, the petitioner filed a motion to open and modify the disposition; thereafter, the court, Sanchez-Figue- roa, J., sustained the orders of temporary custody and denied the respondent father’s motion to dismiss, and the respondent father appealed to this court. Affirmed. Karen Oliver Damboise, for the appellant (respon- dent father). Carolyn A. Signorelli, assistant attorney general, with whom, on the brief, were William Tong, attorney general, and Benjamin Zivyon, assistant attorney gen- eral, for the appellee (petitioner). Christopher DeMatteo, for the minor child. Opinion

BRIGHT, J.

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Bluebook (online)
In re Adrian K., Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-adrian-k-connappct-2019.