People ex rel. S.N.

410 P.3d 500
CourtColorado Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 21, 2013
DocketCourt of Appeals No. 12CA2078
StatusPublished

This text of 410 P.3d 500 (People ex rel. S.N.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Colorado Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. S.N., 410 P.3d 500 (Colo. Ct. App. 2013).

Opinion

Opinion by JUDGE FURMAN

¶ 1 Mother and father appeal the summary judgment adjudicating their newborn child, S.N., dependent and neglected. The summary judgment was based on a theory of *502prospective harm-that there was a risk that the parents would harm S.N. in the future-premised on the trial court's prior summary judgment terminating the parents' relationships with their three older children. The central issue on appeal is whether prospective harm is a factual question that precludes summary judgment. We conclude that it is. We thus reverse the trial court's summary judgment and remand for an adjudicatory jury trial.

I. The Petition in Dependency and Neglect

¶ 2 The Boulder County Department of Human Services (Department) removed S.N. from her parents at birth because a hearing on termination of parental rights involving their three older children was pending. The Department then petitioned the trial court to adjudicate S.N. dependent and neglected, alleging that there was a risk of prospective harm to S.N. if she were placed into the parents' care.

¶ 3 The parents denied the allegations in the petition and requested a jury trial. But, the Department sought summary judgment, alleging in the motion a risk that the parents would not properly care for S.N. in the future because they had ongoing mental health issues, lived in an environment that would be injurious to S.N., and had mistreated their older children, as proven in the prior termination. The prior termination, and the adjudication that preceded it, had also been resolved by summary judgment.

¶ 4 In their responses, the parents denied these allegations and renewed their request for a jury trial.

¶ 5 The trial court agreed with the Department and adjudicated S.N. dependent and neglected by summary judgment. The court found as follows:

Regardless of whether the Court's conclusion to terminate parental rights to the other three children was correct, the Court's factual and legal findings regarding their care in the previous [termination] order are incorporated into this order regarding both parents' failure to comply with the treatment plan, both parents' continual exhibition of the same problems addressed in the treatment plan and that have existed since the beginning of the case, their unfitness as parents, and the unlikeliness that they will become fit within a reasonable period of time.

¶ 6 On appeal, the parents contend that prospective harm is a factual question that precludes summary judgment. To adequately address this issue, we directed the parties to provide supplemental briefing. See C.A.R. 3.4(j)(2) ("After reviewing the petition on appeal, any response, and the record, the Court of Appeals may ... set the case for supplemental briefing on issues raised by the parties....").

¶ 7 We initially address a procedural issue, collateral estoppel, that the Department raised in its supplemental brief. We then address the summary judgment issue.

II. Collateral Estoppel

¶ 8 The Department contends that the parents are collaterally estopped from litigating whether S.N. was dependent and neglected based on the findings and order that terminated the parents' rights to their three older children. We conclude that collateral estoppel is inapplicable because the issues in S.N.'s and the other siblings' cases are not identical. See S.O.V. v. People in Interest of M.C., 914 P.2d 355, 359-60 (Colo.1996) (collateral estoppel, or issue preclusion, bars relitigation of an issue only if, among other things, the issue is identical to an issue actually adjudicated in a prior proceeding). The prior termination order did not involve S.N., the newborn child. See People in Interest of S.B., 742 P.2d 935, 939 (Colo.App.1987) ("[A]djudications of dependency or neglect are not made as to the parents but, rather, relate only to the status of the child as of the date of the adjudication.").

¶ 9 We now turn to the issue of the trial court's summary judgment.

III. Summary Judgment

¶ 10 The explanations and arguments of the parties-both before the trial court and on appeal-demonstrate significant confusion about the procedures surrounding the jury *503trial right at the adjudicatory hearing and the capacity of summary judgment to preclude that right. To address this issue, we first discuss the procedural framework for adjudicatory hearings in the Children's Code, the standards applicable to summary judgment, and, finally, the Department's allegation that S.N. would be prospectively harmed by the parents if she were to be placed in their care.

A. Adjudicatory Hearings

¶ 11 The procedural framework for adjudicatory hearings is contained in the Children's Code. As our supreme court has recognized, "[t]he overriding purpose of the Children's Code is to protect the welfare and safety of children in Colorado by providing procedures through which their best interests can be ascertained and served. Article three, title 19, is the statutory framework for dependency and neglect proceedings." A.M. v. A.C., 2013 CO 16, ¶ 10, 296 P.3d 1026 (citation omitted).

¶ 12 Within this framework, parents are afforded an adjudicatory hearing. §§ 19-1-103(3), 19-3-202(2); 19-3-505(1), C.R.S.2013. At this hearing, a fact finder determines whether a child is dependent and neglected. See A.M., ¶ 12. It is only after finding the child dependent or neglected that the state may intrude into the familial relationship. Id. ; People in Interest of N.G., 2012 COA 131, ¶¶ 18-21, 303 P.3d 1207 ; People in Interest of A.M., 786 P.2d 476, 479 (Colo.App.1989). That is because, under Troxel v. Granville, 530 U.S. 57, 65, 68, 120 S.Ct. 2054, 147 L.Ed.2d 49 (2000), "there is a presumption that fit parents act in the best interests of their children" (the Troxel presumption). The Troxel

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Bluebook (online)
410 P.3d 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-sn-coloctapp-2013.