In the Interest of R.P.

956 A.2d 449, 2008 Pa. Super. 197, 2008 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2327
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 21, 2008
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 956 A.2d 449 (In the Interest of R.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In the Interest of R.P., 956 A.2d 449, 2008 Pa. Super. 197, 2008 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2327 (Pa. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

OPINION BY

BOWES, J.:

¶ 1 KP. (“Mother”) and J.P. (“Father”) (also collectively referred to as “Parents”) appeal from the orders dated October 31, 2007, which were filed November 1, 2007, changing the placement goal for their children, R.P. and L.P., to adoption. As these appeals involve identical parties and derive from the same permanency hearing determinations and orders, we have elected to [451]*451discuss them together.1 Following our complete and thorough review of the record, we affirm.

¶ 2 Eighteen-month-old R.P. arrived at the Bon Secours Community Hospital Emergency Room on August 26, 2007, with a multitude of serious, life-threatening injuries strongly indicative of child abuse. At the dependency hearings, physicians testified that R.P. had suffered over 100 bruises on his body, a skull fracture, healing lacerations on his head and foot, a massive bilateral subdural hematoma, a healing wrist fracture, a possible hip fracture, brain and retinal hemorrhaging, and a web-like pattern of cuts between his fingers. Several medical experts opined that R.P.’s injuries were the result of Shaken Baby Syndrome and Battered Baby Syndrome. On October 4, 2007, the trial court determined that Parents were the perpetrators of the horrific abuse, and declared R.P. and his four-year-old sister, L.P., to be dependent children. The trial court also found the existence of aggravated circumstances and directed that no reunification efforts were required by Pike County Children and Youth Services (“CYS”). Mother filed a timely appeal of the October 4, 2007 dependency orders, which we affirmed. See In the Interest of R.P., 2008 PA Super 196, 957 A.2d 1205 (Pa.Super.2008).

¶ 3 As required by 42 Pa.C.S. § 6351(e)(3)(ii)(A) and Pa.RJ.OP. 1607(A)(1), the trial court conducted a permanency hearing on October 31, 2007, within thirty days of the adjudication of dependency.2

¶4 Melissa Garrick, a CYS caseworker in the placement unit, testified regarding the children’s status and described the recommended goals for each of them. She explained that R.P. remained hospitalized and that L.P. successfully had been placed into a foster home. Ms. Garrick then presented the October 23, 2007 permanency plans for each child, noting the substance and execution of these plans as follows:

A: They are for the foster parents to provide a stable and loving environment, meet the medical, dental and educational needs of the children. For the agency to locate an adoptive home for each child.
Q: And to what extent has the plan been complied with?
A: The foster parents are meeting the objectives for L.P. The objectives can’t be met for R.P. at this time due to his hospitalization[,] and the agency has not yet determined the identity of an adoptive family.

N.T., 10/31/07, at 9-10. Ms. Garrick further represented that family members had been rejected as possible caretakers, noting that kinship care is utilized by CYS only in allowing the family an opportunity to correct the original circumstances that made the placement necessary. Thus, as [452]*452the trial court found that aggravated circumstances were present and directed that reunification would not be sought, CYS did not consider placing the children with relatives.

¶ 5 Ms. Garrick also provided general information about R.P.’s medical condition at that time:

R.P. has a trach. He also has a g-tube, a feeding tube. He can’t sit up. He is not talking. He is moving his hands now[,] and he does respond to voices. He turns his head when you talk to him. Yesterday he had a prosthetic plate surgically placed in his head to protect his brain where the part of his skull was removed for the — to accommodate the brain swelling from his injuries. He should be able to be transferred to rehab as early as Thursday, but we are waiting on a bed to become available.
L.P. is in foster care. She has developed very close bonds with the four-year-old foster brother. They play on a regular basis. I saw her Friday in the foster home. She has developed very close bonds with her foster parents. She is eating well. Initially she showed great anxiety over getting a bath, but the foster parents say that that has decreased quite a bit. She sleeps well at night. She doesn’t suffer any night terrors. She is very boisterous in her play[,] and she is out-going with her foster brother. She interacts very, very well with him. They play.

Id. at 7-8. In addition, at the court’s behest, Ms. Garrick described R.P.’s care provided by the medical staff at Westches-ter Medical Center and noted that the nursing staff was very attentive to R.P.’s needs. Id. at 11.

¶ 6 At the conclusion of Ms. Garrick’s testimony, the trial court determined that the children’s current placements were necessary, appropriate, and safe. The court also ruled that there had been substantial compliance with the October 23, 2007 permanency plans presented by CYS. Due to the existence of aggravated circumstances and the court’s instruction that no further efforts to preserve or reunify the family would be made, the trial court ordered that adoption by July 31, 2008, was a reasonable goal for both children. Accordingly, as required by 42 Pa.C.S. § 6351(f)(9), it directed CYS to file a petition to terminate parental rights and to identify possible adoptive families for the children. Permanency Hearing Determination and Order, 11/1/07.

¶ 7 As noted supra, Mother and Father each filed an appeal. We first address their shared contention,3 which is whether the trial court lacked jurisdiction to conduct the October 31, 2007 permanency hearing because Mother had appealed the October 4, 2007 orders of dependency.

¶ 8 Parents urge that the trial court erred in conducting the October 31, 2007 permanency hearing due to Mother’s appeal of the October 4, 2007 orders of dependency. See In the Interest of R.P., [453]*453supra. As noted supra at footnote three, Mother assailed the findings of dependency and aggravated circumstances in that appeal. In support, Parents assert that “after an appeal is taken ... the trial court or other government unit may no longer proceed further in the matter.” Pa. R.A.P. 1701(a). Accordingly, Parents contend that by rendering a final order on October 4, 2007, which Mother appealed, the trial court was precluded from conducting the permanency hearing.

¶ 9 We disagree. In In the Interest of H.S.W.C.-B, 575 Pa. 473, 836 A.2d 908 (2003), a case addressing the finality of orders granting or denying a status change in dependency cases, our Supreme Court stated, in pertinent part:

In order to avoid gamesmanship, and because of the time needed for appellate review, all orders denying goal changes or termination of parental rights will remain in effect until overturned on appeal or rendered moot by a subsequent order. However, all statutory review hearings should continue at the prescribed intervals; generally, a stay should not be ordered and proceedings halted pending the appeal. As the best interest of the children is always paramount, the continued finger of the trial court on the pulse of the case is needed, even while the matter is appealed.

Id.

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Bluebook (online)
956 A.2d 449, 2008 Pa. Super. 197, 2008 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2327, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-the-interest-of-rp-pasuperct-2008.