R.H. v. Department of Children & Families

988 So. 2d 673, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 11232, 2008 WL 2815538
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedJuly 23, 2008
DocketNo. 4D08-286
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 988 So. 2d 673 (R.H. v. Department of Children & Families) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
R.H. v. Department of Children & Families, 988 So. 2d 673, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 11232, 2008 WL 2815538 (Fla. Ct. App. 2008).

Opinion

WARNER, J.

The appellants, Mr. and Mrs. H, biological relatives of the child, M.S., appeal a final order finding the Department of Children and Families’ (“DCF”) selection of Mr. and Mrs. X as an adoptive placement for M.S. an appropriate placement. They contend that the court erred in limiting its review to the appropriateness of DCF’s selection of the X’s as adoptive parents instead of determining which of the two competing petitions for adoption was in the best interests of M.S. We hold that the trial court did not err in determining that DCF’s selection of the X’s as the adoptive placement was appropriate.

[675]*675Because M.S. tested positive for cocaine at his birth, DCF sheltered him and later granted the H’s, his maternal aunt and uncle, temporary legal and physical custody of M.S. at their home in Maryland. After the court terminated the rights of the mother and the putative father, M.M., the court entered an agreed order approving a case plan with a goal of adoption by July 19, 2006. Although the H’s were approved as a foster/adoptive home through the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, the H’s would not provide a signed subsidy agreement or a completed application to adopt the child. At some point after M.M. had relinquished his rights, the H’s paid to have DNA testing done which proved that M.M. was not the biological father. The H’s desired to obtain DNA testing on another man who might be the father, but DCF refused to pay for it.

During a status hearing in October 2006 counsel for DCF advised the court that Mrs. H no longer wished to adopt because the legal father whose rights were terminated was not the biological father. Mrs. H’s counsel clarified that Mrs. H wanted to adopt, but did not want the adoption to later be disrupted. The court concluded the person Mrs. H sought to have tested had no rights to challenge the adoption under Florida law. After discussing the rights of the putative father, the court asked Mrs. H whether she wanted to proceed to adoption, and Mrs. H replied, “We will not be adopting.” She advised the court that M.S. could either remain with the H’s in foster care, “or they need to come and get him.” The court told Mrs. H to think about her decision for a couple of weeks, and scheduled a status check for two weeks later.

A final adoption hearing was set and rescheduled at least once. However, the hearing never occurred. During a status hearing on April 19, 2007 in which Mrs. H appeared by telephone, she again requested that the child be removed because of various conflicts she had with DCF’s handling of the case. These included the failure to notify men whom the H’s claimed could be the biological father as well as the amount of subsidies to which the child was entitled for various medical conditions. The court entered an order to take M.S. into custody. The order was also based on a letter dated April 18, 2007, in which the social worker in Maryland informed the case worker at the Children’s Home Society that the H’s requested the immediate removal of the child from their custody. M.S. was removed from the H’s and placed in a new placement with Mr. and Mrs. X in Florida.

On April 27, the H’s filed a motion for the immediate return of M.S., stating that it was always their intention to adopt M.S., but that they were afraid the biological father would come forward and challenge the adoption. DCF and Children’s Home Society objected to M.S.’s removal from his new placement, because they had waited over a year for the H’s to sign the adoption papers which had never been signed. Moving the child would be disruptive, as he was adjusting well to his new placement. The court denied the motion for the immediate return of the child. The court determined that it would proceed to an “appropriateness” hearing.

The H’s filed a petition for adoption without attaching a consent from DCF to the adoption. The X’s filed their petition for adoption, and DCF issued its consent to the X’s adoption of M.S. The X’s moved to .dismiss the H’s petition due to their failure to obtain consent from DCF, their failure to have a current valid positive home-study, their lack of standing, and the guardian ad litem’s opinion that a placement with the X’s would be in the child’s [676]*676best interest. (The guardian ad litem and DCF joined in the motion to dismiss.)

The court conducted a lengthy evidentia-ry hearing to determine whether DCF’s consent to the X’s adoption of M.S. was appropriate. A witness from the Children’s Home Society, M.S.’s guardian ad litem, and a social worker all testified that M.S. had adapted well and bonded with his new family. The witnesses deemed the home an appropriate placement. The X’s testified about their home and family life with M.S. and their desire to adopt him.

The guardian ad litem questioned the H’s ability to make important decisions for M.S. based on their requesting his removal, which the guardian ad litem considered egregiously bad judgment. The guardian ad litem and social worker agreed that it was in M.S.’s best interests that he not be moved again. Another change of placement could cause M.S. to develop difficulty forming relationships with people.

The H’s called a social worker with the Baltimore County Department of Social Services, who testified that the H’s were an appropriate placement, although she acknowledged that their request for removal was not in the child’s best interests. The H’s testified to their continued desire to adopt M.S. and acknowledged that they made a major mistake in requesting his removal and refusing to adopt him.

In its final order entered on January 7, 2008, the trial court found DCF’s selection of Mr. and Mrs. X as an adoptive placement for M.S. “unquestionably appropriate, consonant with its policies and made in an expeditious manner given the unique facts and circumstances of this case.” The court permitted DCF to proceed with finalizing the adoption. The court denied as moot the motion to dismiss the H’s petition for adoption. The H’s appeal the order approving the adoption.

The H’s contend that the trial court misinterpreted current Florida law when it found that its review was limited to whether DCF’s selection of Mr. and Mrs. X was an appropriate adoptive placement. DCF and Guardian ad Litem Program counter that the trial court properly applied the law and correctly found that DCF’s selection was appropriate, consonant with the state’s policies, and made in an expeditious manner.

This court has consistently held that where DCF consents to an adoption petition submitted in a termination of parental rights proceeding, the trial court lacks authority to determine whether another adoptive placement is more appropriate. In C.S. v. S.H., 671 So.2d 260 (Fla. 4th DCA 1996), we discussed the interplay between chapter 39, regarding the power of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services (“HRS”) (the predecessor to DCF) to select adoptive parents for children whose parental rights have been terminated, with the provisions of chapter 63, relating to the trial court’s overall jurisdiction to entertain adoption petitions. HRS had consented to the adoption of C.S. by biological relatives, but C.S.’s foster parents contested the petition, and the trial court granted the foster parents’ petition for adoption. We concluded that while the trial court must act in the child’s best interests in adoption proceedings, that general policy does not supersede the specific statutory limitations on the trial court’s authority to interfere with HRS’s selection.

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Related

Department of Children & Families v. Statewide Guardian Ad Litem Program
186 So. 3d 1084 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2016)
R.L. v. W.G.
147 So. 3d 1054 (District Court of Appeal of Florida, 2014)

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Bluebook (online)
988 So. 2d 673, 2008 Fla. App. LEXIS 11232, 2008 WL 2815538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rh-v-department-of-children-families-fladistctapp-2008.