In Re SWH

72 S.W.3d 772, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 2081, 2002 WL 435964
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 21, 2002
Docket2-01-250-CV
StatusPublished

This text of 72 S.W.3d 772 (In Re SWH) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re SWH, 72 S.W.3d 772, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 2081, 2002 WL 435964 (Tex. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

72 S.W.3d 772 (2002)

In the INTEREST OF S.W.H.

No. 2-01-250-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, Fort Worth.

March 21, 2002.

*774 Neil L. Durrance, Denton, for appellant.

Hayes, Coffey & Berry, P.C., Thomas M. McMurray, Denton, for appellee.

PANEL A: HOLMAN and WALKER, JJ., and DAVID L. RICHARDS, J. (Sitting by Assignment).

OPINION

DIXON W. HOLMAN, Justice.

After a bench trial on Appellees' suit affecting the parent child relationship, the trial court appointed Appellees sole managing conservators and Appellant, the natural parent, as possessory conservator. In two points, Appellant argues the trial court erred in considering certain evidence of her actions during pregnancy and challenges the legal and factual sufficiency of the evidence to support the trial court's decision to appoint Appellees as S.W.H.'s sole managing conservators. We reverse.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

S.W.H. was born on July 29, 1997. Shortly after S.W.H. was born, Melissa Moffitt, a Child Protective Services ("CPS") worker, was assigned to intervene on behalf of S.W.H. after Appellant tested positive for drugs during a routine urine analysis performed by her probation officer. The second time Appellant violated her probation by testing positive for drugs, her probation officer recommended that Appellant's probation be revoked and that she be incarcerated in a Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Treatment Facility ("SAFP").

Appellant was a good friend of Appellees and had asked Appellees in the past to babysit S.W.H. Moffitt explained to Appellant that she could either voluntarily place S.W.H. with Appellees while she was incarcerated in the SAFP or CPS would have to take S.W.H. and place her in foster care. In late March, Moffitt accompanied Appellant to a local park where Appellant gave S.W.H. to Appellees so that she could enter the SAFP. Moffitt explained both to Appellant and Appellees that the arrangement was only temporary and that Appellant would get S.W.H. back when Appellant completed her time in the SAFP.

Appellant was admitted to the SAFP on April 7, 1998, and was discharged into a halfway house on January 7, 1999. On January 22, 1999, shortly before Appellant was released from the halfway house, Appellees filed suit to have themselves appointed *775 sole managing conservators of S.W.H. Appellees also applied for a temporary restraining order prohibiting Appellant from any contact or attempted contact with S.W.H. After granting Appellees' application for a temporary restraining order and appointing Appellees as temporary managing conservators, the trial court set the case for hearing. On April 27, 2001, following a bench trial, the trial court entered its final order appointing Appellees sole managing conservators of S.W.H. and Appellant possessory conservator.[1]

APPELLANT'S ACTS DURING PREGNANCY

In her first point, Appellant complains that the trial court improperly considered testimony regarding Appellant's alleged drug and alcohol use during pregnancy. To preserve a complaint for our review, a party must have presented to the trial court a timely request, objection, or motion that states the specific grounds for the desired ruling, if they are not apparent from the context of the request, objection, or motion. Tex.R.App. P. 33.1(a); see also Tex.R. Evid. 103(a)(1). If a party fails to do this, error is not preserved, and the complaint is waived. Bushell v. Dean, 803 S.W.2d 711, 712 (Tex.1991) (op. on reh'g).

Here, Appellee D.W. was the first to testify without objection that Appellant drank and smoked marijuana and perhaps used cocaine while she was pregnant with S.W.H. Next, Moffitt, the CPS worker, testified without objection that Appellant told her she had smoked marijuana while she was pregnant with S.W.H. Finally, Betty Hughes, Appellant's probation officer, testified without objection that Appellant told her she used "illicit substances" during pregnancy. Appellant also testified that she used alcohol and marijuana while she was pregnant with S.W.H. In each instance, Appellant's counsel made no objection to the testimony. Therefore, even if it was erroneous for the trial court to consider evidence of Appellant's drug use while pregnant, Appellant waived any complaints regarding the testimony's admission. Tex.R.App. P. 33.1(a). We overrule Appellant's first point.

PRESUMPTIONS UNDER THE FAMILY CODE

The family code provides a "parental presumption" in child custody cases: "[U]nless the court finds that appointment of the parent ... would not be in the best interest of the child because the appointment would significantly impair the child's physical health or emotional development, a parent shall be appointed sole managing conservator." Tex. Fam.Code Ann. § 153.131(a) (Vernon Supp.2002) (emphasis added). The code also provides that the presumption can be rebutted if the court finds that:

(1) the parent has voluntarily relinquished actual care, control, and possession of the child to a nonparent, licensed child-placing agency, or authorized agency for a period of one year or more, a portion of which was within 90 days preceding the date of intervention in or filing of the suit; and
(2) the appointment of the nonparent or agency as managing conservator is in the best interest of the child.

Id. § 153.373 (Vernon 1996). Consequently, a nonparent seeking custody may rebut the parental presumption and prevail over a parent by showing that appointing the parent as conservator would significantly impair the child's health or development or *776 by showing that the parent voluntarily relinquished physical possession of the child for one year or more. See In re M.W., 959 S.W.2d 661, 665 (Tex.App.-Tyler 1997, no pet.).

LEGAL AND FACTUAL SUFFICIENCY

Appellant argues the evidence is legally and factually insufficient to support the trial court's decision to appoint Appellees managing conservators instead of her. In determining a legal sufficiency, "no-evidence" point, we are to consider only the evidence and inferences that tend to support the finding and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Bradford v. Vento, 48 S.W.3d 749, 754 (Tex.2001); Cont'l Coffee Prods. Co. v. Cazarez, 937 S.W.2d 444, 450 (Tex.1996); In re King's Estate, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660, 661 (1951). Anything more than a scintilla of evidence is legally sufficient to support the finding. Cazarez, 937 S.W.2d at 450; Leitch v. Hornsby, 935 S.W.2d 114, 118 (Tex.1996). There is more than a scintilla of evidence when the proof supplies a reasonable basis on which reasonable minds may reach different conclusions about the existence of the vital fact. Orozco v. Sander, 824 S.W.2d 555, 556 (Tex.1992).

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Bluebook (online)
72 S.W.3d 772, 2002 Tex. App. LEXIS 2081, 2002 WL 435964, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-swh-texapp-2002.