In re K.J.B.

2007 MT 216, 168 P.3d 629, 339 Mont. 28, 2007 Mont. LEXIS 401
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 5, 2007
DocketNo. DA 07-0038
StatusPublished
Cited by38 cases

This text of 2007 MT 216 (In re K.J.B.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re K.J.B., 2007 MT 216, 168 P.3d 629, 339 Mont. 28, 2007 Mont. LEXIS 401 (Mo. 2007).

Opinions

JUSTICE COTTER

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

¶1 The parents of K.J.B. appeal the Eighth Judicial District Court’s Order terminating their parental rights to the child. We affirm.

ISSUE

¶2 While the parents present multiple issues on appeal, the dispositive issue is whether the District Court abused its discretion in terminating J.B.’s and C.B.’s parental rights to K.J.B.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

¶3 J.B. and C.B. II (hereinafter C.B.) are the natural parents of five living children born between 1995 and 2005: C.B. III, A.B., C.B. V,T.B. and K.J.B. In addition, a sixth child, C.B. IV, was delivered stillborn during these years. J.B., the children’s mother, suffers from a chromosomal abnormality known as velocardiofacial syndrome (VCFS). VCFS causes physical and cognitive difficulties and developmental delays. Among others symptoms it can manifest in heart defects, cleft palate, curved esophagus, hearing and speech impairment, bowel problems, and poor muscle tone. As a result of VCFS, J.B. is mentally impaired with limited intellectual capacity. Each of J.B.’s children was born with VCFS. As the previous termination proceedings involving these parents were judicially noticed by the District Court at the adjudicatory hearing stage of these proceedings and are critical to our ruling, we provide the necessary details of those proceedings below.

Termination of Rights to C.B. III

¶4 C.B. III was born in May 1995. In August 1995, while the child was in the Deaconess Hospital in Great Falls, the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services, Child and Family Services Division (DPHHS), filed for temporary investigative authority, protective services, temporary custody, and for adjudication that C.B. III, was a youth in need of care. C.B. III suffered each of the above-listed manifestations of VCFS. His curved esophagus created [30]*30feeding difficulties which required that he be fed with a feeding tube. Additionally, for the first several months of his life, he was required to be on oxygen at all times. His doctors speculated that he would need physical, speech and occupational therapy, in addition to on-going medical treatments, and that his intellectual capacity would be limited.

¶5 One of C.B. III’s doctors indicated that when the child was first born, the parents seemed to be involved in his care and rarely missed a scheduled doctor’s appointment. In a short amount of time, however, their commitment, to the effort waned and they began to miss appointments. As a result of his parents’ inability to adequately care for him, C.B. III was placed in foster care in early October 1995 upon his release from a two-month hospital stay. J.B. and C.B. stipulated, with assistance of counsel, to adjudication that C.B. III was a youth in need of care and agreed to DPHHS having temporary custody. Beginning in October 1995 DPHHS provided a therapist to work with J.B. and C.B. to assess their needs and assist in teaching them how to care for their special needs child. The therapist, after observing personality issues, cognitive impairment and paranoia exhibited by the parents, suggested that J.B. and C.B. undergo psychological evaluations, the results of which would allow the Department to better tailor the parents’ treatment plans to their needs and abilities. J.B. and C.B. refused to undergo the evaluations.1 As a result, they ultimately signed treatment plans that did not consider or address their specific needs. The Plans were approved by the Lewis and Clark County District Court in December 1995.

¶6 During the course of assistance provided by DPHHS, the therapist noted that the parents consistently failed to physically interact with C.B. III, touching or holding him only when prompted to do so. They also were unable to understand how to feed C.B. III with a feeding tube and could not consistently diaper him properly. Because the parents could not master these two necessary basic activities, the therapist was unable to move on to other child care requirements such as bathing C.B. III. Despite being told that cigarette smoke was considered risky to C.B. III’s health, J.B. and C.B. refused to stop smoking when DPHHS brought C.B. III to their home for visits. The [31]*31Department therefore moved the visits to another location, and J.B. and C.B. responded by refusing to attend visits outside of their own home. By this time, the parents rarely attended C.B. Ill’s medical appointments.

¶7 In June 1996 DPHHS filed a petition to terminate J.B.’s and C.B.’s parental rights on the ground that the parents had not complied with the provisions of the treatment plan. Specifically, J.B. and C.B. had failed to participate in the majority of scheduled visits with C.B. III or attend his doctor appointments, they had refused to undergo the Plan-required psychological evaluations, J.B. failed to seek Plan-prescribed prenatal care during her pregnancy with C.B. IV resulting in the child’s still birth, and the couple failed to maintain a stable residence.

¶8 A hearing was held on the Department’s termination petition in August 1996. Counsel for the parents appeared but J.B. and C.B. did not, having moved from Montana and leaving no forwarding address. The First Judicial District Court for Lewis and Clark County terminated their parental rights.

Termination of Rights to C.B. V and A.B.

¶9 By August 1999, J.B. and C.B. had returned to Montana and C.B. V and A.B. had been born, both with VCFS. At that time both children were adjudicated youths in need of care by the Second Judicial District Court for Silver Bow County, and in January 2000 J.B.’s and C.B.’s parental rights to these children were terminated. C.B. and counsel for both C.B. and J.B. attended the hearing but J.B. did not. The Silver Bow court took judicial notice of the previous involuntary termination and stated that the circumstances surrounding the abuse and neglect of C.B. III were related to the termination of rights to C.B. V and A.B. Specifically, the court noted that J.B. failed to complete a psychological evaluation, both parents failed to maintain a stable residence, J.B. did not have adequate prenatal care with respect to her pregnancy with C.B. V, both parents failed to provide adequate and timely medical care for A.B., J.B. failed to obtain medical care and monitoring of her medical situation on a timely and constant basis, and they left both children with care providers without making arrangements for food, clothing, or advising when they would return for the children. Additionally, J.B. told the DPHHS social worker that she did not -wish contact with her children and wanted to relinquish her parental rights. As described above, C.B. underwent a neuro-psychological evaluation which indicated that his severe intellectual and personality handicaps were developmental and irreversible. The doctor testified that C.B. [32]*32could not meet the minimum criteria for providing for the needs of his handicapped children.

Termination of Rights to T.B.

¶10 Subsequently T.B. was born, also with VCFS, and was placed in emergency protective custody on April 16, 2003, one day after her birth. On May 6, 2003, J.B. and C.B. were appointed counsel, and on May 21, 2003, T.B. was adjudicated a youth in need of care. The Eighth Judicial District Court for Cascade County acknowledged the previous terminations and found that J.B. and C.B. continued to be unable or unwilling to provide the child with the special care she required.

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Bluebook (online)
2007 MT 216, 168 P.3d 629, 339 Mont. 28, 2007 Mont. LEXIS 401, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-kjb-mont-2007.