L.T. v. Chambers County Department of Human Resources

CourtCourt of Civil Appeals of Alabama
DecidedApril 14, 2023
DocketCL-2022-0972
StatusPublished

This text of L.T. v. Chambers County Department of Human Resources (L.T. v. Chambers County Department of Human Resources) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
L.T. v. Chambers County Department of Human Resources, (Ala. Ct. App. 2023).

Opinion

Rel: April 14, 2023

Notice: This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the advance sheets of Southern Reporter. Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Alabama Appellate Courts, 300 Dexter Avenue, Montgomery, Alabama 36104-3741 ((334) 229-0650), of any typographical or other errors, in order that corrections may be made before the opinion is published in Southern Reporter.

ALABAMA COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS OCTOBER TERM, 2022-2023 _________________________

CL-2022-0687 _________________________

J.T.

v.

Chambers County Department of Human Resources

_________________________

CL-2022-0972 _________________________

L.T.

Appeals from Chambers Juvenile Court (JU-19-53.03) CL-2022-0687 and CL-2022-0972

PER CURIAM.

In appeal number CL-2022-0972, L.T. ("the mother") appeals from

a judgment terminating her parental rights to I.M. ("the child"), one of

her three children; the Chambers Juvenile Court ("the juvenile court")

entered that judgment in an action docketed as JU-19-53.03 ("the .03

action"). In appeal number CL-2022-0687, J.T. ("the maternal

grandmother"), the child's maternal grandmother, appeals from an order

of the juvenile court denying her motion to intervene in the .03 action,

appeals from an interlocutory injunction that the juvenile court entered

in the .03 action, and purports to appeal from the judgment terminating

the mother's parental rights. We consolidated the appeals ex mero motu.

We dismiss the mother's appeal because the judgment from which

she appeals is not a final one. We dismiss the maternal grandmother's

appeal insofar as it challenges the denial of her motion to intervene

because she did not timely file her notice of appeal with respect to that

order, we dismiss her appeal insofar as she purports to appeal from the

judgment terminating the mother's parental rights because the maternal

grandmother does not have standing to appeal from that judgment, and

we reverse the order granting an interlocutory injunction as to the

2 CL-2022-0687 and CL-2022-0972

maternal grandmother because the juvenile court entered it without

affording her due process.

Background

The mother, who was thirty-seven years old when the juvenile court

tried this case on May 19, 2022, moved with the child from Georgia to

Chambers County in January 2019. The child's father was a resident of

Georgia before he died in December 2020. The mother gave birth to the

child in April 2014, and the child was eight years old when the juvenile

court tried this case. The mother has two other children that remained

in Georgia when she moved to Alabama in 2019. Those children, who

were fourteen and twelve years old when the juvenile court tried this

case, have a different father than the child. They were living with the

maternal grandmother in Georgia when this case was tried, although a

court has not transferred custody to her.

The mother testified that Georgia's Family and Children Services

("FCS") in Cobb County, Georgia, became involved with her family in

2016, apparently because the mother was using illegal drugs. FCS in

Cobb County removed the child from the mother's custody and gave her

a case plan requiring her to submit to random drug testing, submit to a

3 CL-2022-0687 and CL-2022-0972

drug-and-alcohol evaluation, comply with the recommendations made by

the drug-and-alcohol evaluator, attend parenting classes, maintain

stable housing, and maintain employment. FCS in Cobb County placed

the child with the maternal grandmother from June 2016 until June

2017. However, the maternal grandmother did not want to be a long-term

placement for the child, so FCS in Cobb County transferred the child to

his maternal aunt's custody in June 2017. The mother testified that she

had successfully completed the requirements of the case plan and that

FCS in Cobb County had returned the child to her custody later in 2017.

The mother testified that, in January 2018, she relapsed into using

illegal drugs, and FCS in Cherokee County, Georgia, removed the child

from her custody. Subsequently, after the mother moved to Troup

County, Georgia, FCS in Cherokee County transferred the child's case to

FCS in Troup County. After the mother completed the requirements of

her case plan in August 2018, FCS in Troup County returned the child to

her custody.

The mother moved to Alabama in January 2019. In February 2019,

FCS in Troup County asked the Chambers County Department of

Human Resources ("DHR") to locate the mother and the child to

4 CL-2022-0687 and CL-2022-0972

determine whether the mother needed further services because, FCS

said, she had an ongoing child-protection case in Troup County.

DHR located the mother and the child in March 2019 and sent a

caseworker to the mother's residence to check on the mother and the

child. The caseworker asked to see the child, but the mother refused and

started to close the door. The caseworker put her foot in the doorway to

block the door. The mother threatened to punch the caseworker if she did

not remove her foot from the doorway. The caseworker, who was

pregnant, backed away and called law enforcement. Before a law-

enforcement officer could arrive, however, the mother climbed out of a

window with the child and fled.

In April 2019, DHR learned that the child had been in Georgia with

his father for several weeks and that the child had returned to Chambers

County. Caseworkers from DHR went to the mother's residence; however,

she would not let them enter the residence. The caseworkers sought

assistance from law-enforcement officers, who came to the mother's

residence, arrested her, and charged her with resisting arrest and

obstructing governmental operations. Law enforcement later dismissed

those charges.

5 CL-2022-0687 and CL-2022-0972

When the caseworkers entered the mother's residence following her

arrest, they found that the mother did not have any food in the residence,

that the residence did not have water service, and that the only source of

electricity was the battery from the mother's automobile, from which

someone had run a cable to the residence. Aside from the child, no one

else was in the residence. DHR placed the child in foster care and, on

April 16, 2019, commenced a dependency action ("the .01 action")

regarding the child in the juvenile court. In August 2019, the maternal

grandmother filed a motion to intervene in the .01 action, which the

juvenile court granted on August 28, 2019.

DHR requested that FCS do a home study on the maternal

grandmother pursuant to the Interstate Compact on the Placement of

Children ("ICPC"), § 44-2-20 et seq., Ala. Code 1975. FCS did the home

study and recommended that DHR not place the child with the maternal

grandmother because, according to the FCS caseworker, the maternal

grandmother did not have the capacity to protect the child from the

mother, had demonstrated a lack of commitment to the child when she

had custody of him in 2016 and 2017, had expressed her belief that child-

6 CL-2022-0687 and CL-2022-0972

welfare authorities were corrupt, and may not cooperate with FCS in its

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L.T. v. Chambers County Department of Human Resources, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lt-v-chambers-county-department-of-human-resources-alacivapp-2023.