Matter of Sterling

Court of Appeals of North Carolina

Matter of Sterling

305 S.E.2d 769, 63 N.C. App. 562, 1983 N.C. App. LEXIS 3140

CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina

DecidedAugust 16, 1983

Docket8229DC820

StatusPublished

Cited by2 cases

This text of 305 S.E.2d 769 (Matter of Sterling) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook

Matter of Sterling, 305 S.E.2d 769, 63 N.C. App. 562, 1983 N.C. App. LEXIS 3140 (N.C. Ct. App. 1983).

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Opinion

PHILLIPS, Judge.

The respondent having excepted to none of the court’s findings of fact, they are conclusive, In re Biggers, 50 N.C. App. 332, 274 S.E. 2d 236 (1981), and the only question for determination is whether the facts so found support the court’s conclusions that the respondent neglected the child within the meaning of G.S. 7A-289.32 and G.S. 7A-517(21), has demonstrated that she will not properly care for it, and that the child’s best interests require that the respondent’s parental rights be terminated.

The court’s findings, among other things, establish that during the four years or so preceding the filing of the action that: The child was left in foster care from October, 1977 until March, 1979, a period of seventeen months, during which respondent visited the child on only five separate occasions for a total of only eleven days, and that for substantial periods during those seventeen months, her whereabouts were unknown; soon after custody was returned to respondent in March, 1979, she left the child with distant relatives and received psychiatric care for a mental and emotional malady at Broughton Hospital until April 9, 1980; following her release from the hospital, she and the child lived with a man named Ronnie Sears for two weeks, after which respondent requested that the child be returned to foster care or placed for adoption; the child was returned to foster care and since then respondent has visited him only twice; she has made no reasonable effort to obtain regular employment or even to be employable, and, without reason or explanation, dropped out of a *564 CETA program that Social Services got her in after two weeks; she drank heavily, was arrested for drunkenness several times, lived under a bridge for several days, and was again committed to Broughton Hospital for inebriancy; and failed to provide any amount whatever for the child’s support during all the period involved.

These findings support the conclusions made and the order appealed from is therefore

Affirmed.

Judge WELLS concurs. Judge Hedrick concurs in result.

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PHILLIPS, Judge.

The respondent having excepted to none of the court’s findings of fact, they are conclusive, In re Biggers, 50 N.C. App. 332, 274 S.E. 2d 236 (1981), and the only question for determination is whether the facts so found support the court’s conclusions that the respondent neglected the child within the meaning of G.S. 7A-289.32 and G.S. 7A-517(21), has demonstrated that she will not properly care for it, and that the child’s best interests require that the respondent’s parental rights be terminated.

The court’s findings, among other things, establish that during the four years or so preceding the filing of the action that: The child was left in foster care from October, 1977 until March, 1979, a period of seventeen months, during which respondent visited the child on only five separate occasions for a total of only eleven days, and that for substantial periods during those seventeen months, her whereabouts were unknown; soon after custody was returned to respondent in March, 1979, she left the child with distant relatives and received psychiatric care for a mental and emotional malady at Broughton Hospital until April 9, 1980; following her release from the hospital, she and the child lived with a man named Ronnie Sears for two weeks, after which respondent requested that the child be returned to foster care or placed for adoption; the child was returned to foster care and since then respondent has visited him only twice; she has made no reasonable effort to obtain regular employment or even to be employable, and, without reason or explanation, dropped out of a *564 CETA program that Social Services got her in after two weeks; she drank heavily, was arrested for drunkenness several times, lived under a bridge for several days, and was again committed to Broughton Hospital for inebriancy; and failed to provide any amount whatever for the child’s support during all the period involved.

These findings support the conclusions made and the order appealed from is therefore

Affirmed.

Judge WELLS concurs. Judge Hedrick concurs in result.

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Bluebook (online)

305 S.E.2d 769, 63 N.C. App. 562, 1983 N.C. App. LEXIS 3140, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matter-of-sterling-ncctapp-1983.

Opinion

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