In Re LC

908 So. 2d 568, 2005 WL 1922581
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedAugust 12, 2005
Docket2D04-819, 2D04-918, 2D04-1552
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 908 So. 2d 568 (In Re LC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re LC, 908 So. 2d 568, 2005 WL 1922581 (Fla. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

908 So.2d 568 (2005)

In the Interest of L.C., J.T., L.S., J.S., and R.S., Minor Children.
J.T., father, Appellant,
v.
Department of Children and Family Services, Appellee.
A.L.S., mother, Appellant,
v.
Department of Children and Family Services, Appellee.
R.C., father, Appellant,
v.
Department of Children and Family Services, Appellee.

Nos. 2D04-819, 2D04-918, 2D04-1552.

District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District.

August 12, 2005.

*569 Heather M. Gray, Riverview, for Appellants.

Charles J. Crist, Jr., Attorney General, Tallahassee, and Christopher Perone, Assistant Attorney General, Tampa, for Appellee.

ALTENBERND, Judge.

These appeals involve the termination of the parental rights of three parties.[1] The Mother, A.L.S., has five children: L.C., L.S., J.T., J.S., and R.S. These children have four different fathers. The trial court terminated the Mother's parental rights as to all five of her children. It also *570 terminated the parental rights of the father, J.T., to his children, J.S. and J.T. Finally, it terminated the parental rights of the father, R.C., to his child, R.S.

We affirm the terminations of the Mother and J.T. concerning the child, J.S., who has suffered at least two instances of severe abuse while in the Mother's care and who requires extraordinary care because of his medical conditions. Although we understand why the trial court concluded that the circumstances surrounding the treatment of J.S. would warrant the terminations of the Mother's parental rights to her remaining four children, we conclude that the record does not support those terminations at this time. There may be no particular need to terminate the Mother's parental rights to the oldest child, L.C., who apparently has been living successfully with her father for the last four years in another city.

Because we reverse the terminations of the Mother's parental rights as to four of her children, L.C., J.T., L.S., and R.S., the terminations of parental rights for the two fathers must be justified as single-parent terminations. We conclude that the record does not justify such terminations.

I. BACKGROUND

The Mother is a single mother of five children between the ages of three and twelve. With the exception of J.S., these children appear to be healthy, normal children. J.S. suffers from complicated medical conditions. He was born with a cleft palate and had to be fed by a syringe for approximately the first six weeks of his life. His feeding is currently assisted by the use of a gastrointestinal tube ("G-tube"). These medical problems have stunted this child's growth, both physically and emotionally.

The Mother's involvement with the Department of Children and Family Services (the Department) began in 1999 after J.S. suffered a severe skull fracture when he was only five or six weeks old. The Mother's then-boyfriend, R.C., was arrested for causing the skull fracture and was subsequently convicted of child neglect and sentenced in January 2001 to five years' imprisonment. The Mother was not charged with any criminal wrongdoing stemming from this incident, but her children were sheltered. The Department filed a petition for adjudication of dependency as a result of this shelter, but the Mother filed a motion to dismiss the petition and the trial court granted that motion in August 1999.

Approximately a year after J.S.'s skull fracture, an anonymous source reported to the Department that J.S. had suffered a serious burn to his foot and that the Mother had failed to seek outside medical attention for this injury. R.C. had not yet gone to prison at that time, and there was some evidence suggesting that he was in the Mother's home at the time of the child's injury, despite orders barring him from contact with any of the Mother's children. There was also evidence that the burn was not accidental.

The Mother claimed that R.C. was not in the home and that the child was injured when she accidentally knocked a pot of boiling water off the stove and onto the child's foot. She stated that she did not seek outside medical treatment because she feared her prior involvement with the Department would prompt the removal of her children. Despite the fact that she did not take the child to the doctor, the Mother testified that she contacted a friend who is a registered nurse and that she treated the child's burn according to the nurse's instructions. After the Department arrived in response to the anonymous call, J.S. was hospitalized for six days with *571 second- and third-degree burns to the top of his foot.

As a result of J.S.'s burn and the Mother's failure to seek professional medical treatment for it, the four children were once again sheltered in November 2000 and the Mother was charged with criminal child abuse. The Mother's fifth child, R.S., was born approximately five months later. This child was not sheltered after its birth and was in the Mother's care until two years later when the Mother was convicted of aggravated child abuse and child neglect as the result of J.S.'s burn.

After the Mother was incarcerated, the Department filed an amended petition for termination of her parental rights as to all five children and the parental rights of three[2] of the fathers as to their respective children.

II. THE MOTHER'S TERMINATIONS

It is perhaps noteworthy that the Department did not file a petition against the Mother alleging that she had failed to comply with a case plan. Instead, the Department alleged that the Mother had engaged in egregious conduct as described in section 39.806(1)(f), Florida Statutes (2003), and that she engaged in conduct toward the children that continued to threaten the life, safety, well-being, or physical, mental, or emotional health of each of the children irrespective of the provision of services, as described in section 39.806(1)(c), Florida Statutes (2003). We conclude that the trial court properly terminated the Mother's parental rights as to the child, J.S., pursuant to section 39.806(1)(f), but that termination of the Mother's rights as to each of her other four children was not established on either of the grounds alleged.

Section 39.806(1)(f) permits termination when a parent "engaged in egregious conduct or had the opportunity and capability to prevent and knowingly failed to prevent egregious conduct that threatens the life, safety, or physical, mental, or emotional health of the child or the child's sibling." See § 39.806(1)(f). Egregious conduct is defined as

abuse, abandonment, neglect, or any other conduct of the parent or parents that is deplorable, flagrant, or outrageous by a normal standard of conduct. Egregious conduct may include an act or omission that occurred only once but was of such an intensity, magnitude, or severity as to endanger the life of the child.

See § 39.806(1)(f)(2).

Section 39.806(1)(f) permits a trial court to terminate parental rights not only to the child who has suffered egregious abuse but also to any siblings of such a child. See § 39.806(1)(f). However, this court has held that termination of any unharmed child must be the least restrictive means of protecting them, permissible only where there is competent, substantial evidence that the parent poses a substantial risk of significant harm to the abused child's siblings. See In re K.A., 880 So.2d 705, 709 (Fla. 2d DCA 2004).

In this case, the trial court never determined whether J.S. was burned by accident or on purpose.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

O.B. v. Department of Children & Family Services
115 So. 3d 426 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2013)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
908 So. 2d 568, 2005 WL 1922581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-lc-fladistctapp-2005.