L.A. v. Dept. of Children and Families

Opinion

Third District Court of Appeal State of Florida

Opinion filed October 19, 2016.

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No. 3D16-1792 Lower Tribunal No. 13-15647 ________________

L.A., the mother, Appellant,

vs.

Department of Children & Families, et al., Appellees.

An Appeal from the Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County, Martin Zilber, Judge.

Eugene F. Zenobi, Criminal Conflict and Civil Regional Counsel, Third Region, and Kevin Coyle Colbert, Assistant Regional Counsel, for appellant.

Karla Perkins, Appellate Counsel for the Department of Children & Families; Laura J. Lee (Sanford), Appellate Counsel for the Guardian ad Litem Program, for appellees.

Before SHEPHERD, LAGOA and EMAS, JJ.

SHEPHERD, J. ON CONCESSION OF ERROR

Upon the Department of Children and Families’ and the Guardian ad Litem

Program’s appropriate concession of error in the trial court’s sua sponte order

placing the minor children, C.Y., N.Y. and T.Y., in permanent guardianship with

the paternal grandmother, without notice to the mother as well as without an

evidentiary hearing, in violation of the mother’s due process rights, we reverse and

remand for an evidentiary hearing. See In re K.M., 86 So. 3d 556 (Fla. 2d DCA

2012).

Reversed and remanded for further proceedings.