State ex rel. Children, Youth & Families Department v. Vincent L.

1998 NMCA 089, 963 P.2d 529, 125 N.M. 452
CourtNew Mexico Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 20, 1998
DocketNo. 19060
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1998 NMCA 089 (State ex rel. Children, Youth & Families Department v. Vincent L.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Children, Youth & Families Department v. Vincent L., 1998 NMCA 089, 963 P.2d 529, 125 N.M. 452 (N.M. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinion

OPINION

PICKARD, Judge.

{1} This case requires us to decide whether the Abuse and Neglect Act, NMSA 1978, §§ 32A-4-1 through -33 (1993), prior to its amendment in 1997, permits the children’s court to adjudicate a child abused or neglected without being able to assign responsibility for the abuse or neglect to a parent, guardian, or custodian. We hold that it does not.

PROCEDURE AND ISSUES

{2} The Department appeals an order dismissing an abuse and neglect petition. The docketing statement raised the issue identified above, as well as two issues dealing with the admission and exclusion of evidence: (1) whether the trial court erred in ruling that evidence of Ernie L.’s prior acts of violence were more prejudicial than probative and therefore would not be admitted and (2) whether the trial court erred in excluding evidence of the prior acts of violence due to the Department’s failure to provide the sort of discovery the trial court thought was appropriate in this abuse and neglect case. The trial court appeared to hold the Department to a standard of discovery that made the Department responsible for some of its witnesses even though the witnesses were not under the Department’s control, a standard the Department contends is more consistent with criminal procedure than procedure in the civil ease that it contends this abuse and neglect case is.

{3} The calendar notice proposed summary affirmance. On the issue of the construction of the statute, we proposed to hold that the clear language of the Abuse and Neglect Act prior to its 1997 amendment required the Department to show the respondent’s responsibility for the abuse or neglect. On the issue of other bad acts, we proposed to hold that the matter was within the trial court’s discretion. On the issue of discovery, we proposed not to reach any alleged error by the trial court in view of our proposal to affirm the trial court’s exclusion of the evidence on Rule 11-403 NMRA 1998 grounds. The Department has timely responded to the first two issues. Not persuaded by its arguments, we affirm.

FACTS

{4} The unchallenged findings of the trial court show that Vincent L., the child of Deborah M. and Ernie L., suffered one, and possibly two, skull fractures before he was seven months old. The later skull fracture was discovered by Ernie’s mother, Juanita L., in whose custody Vincent was, on August 3. Upon finding a soft spot on Vincent’s head, Juanita told Deborah and Ernie, and they arranged immediate and appropriate medical attention for Vincent. The fracture occurred sometime between July 30 and August 2. During this time, Vincent had been in the custody at various times of Juanita, Ernie, Deborah, and a babysitter.

{5} The Department’s evidence tended to show that the skull fracture was likely the result of being hit with a blunt object or being thrown against an object. The Department’s experts testified that Ernie and Deborah’s explanation—that the child had fallen— was unlikely and could not have caused such an injury. Respondents’ expert, on the other hand, testified that the injury was not serious and that skull fractures among children are not uncommon.

{6} Although the Department’s docketing statement contains a fuller recitation of the evidence, mainly showing that Respondents’ evidence was not as worthy of weight as its own evidence, the Department has commendably not raised a sufficiency-of-theevidenee issue. An appellate court does not weigh the evidence and, as long as it is rational for the trial court in this case to have found that the Department did not meet its burden of proof, we will affirm on a suffieiency-of-the-evidence contention. See Sanders v. Rosenberg, 1997-NMSC-002, ¶ 11, 122 N.M. 692, 930 P.2d 1144; Medina v. Berg Constr., Inc., 1996-NMCA-087, ¶17, 122 N.M. 350, 924 P.2d 1362. Because no sufficiency issue is raised, we do not deem it necessary to give a fuller statement of the facts.

DISCUSSION

1. The Statute

{7} The Department continues to argue that it is not required to prove who caused the injury to a child in order to adjudicate a child physically abused. The Department generally argues that such a showing would be more appropriate in a criminal case, where the state is trying to show criminal culpability in order to mete out punishment. Such a showing should not be required, according to the Department, in this civil case in which the best interest of the child is paramount, a notion the Department contends was not fully appreciated by the trial court. We disagree that the trial court treated its fact finding in this case in any way other than appropriately under the Children’s Code. The trial court carefully laid out the statutory elements of abuse and neglect and explained why the Department did not meet its burden of proof in the court’s opinion. The findings give no suggestion that the trial court thought this case had criminal overtones.

{8} The Department’s argument is based on its reading of the definitional section of the Abuse and Neglect Act, § 32A-4-2. Since the Department does not challenge the trial court’s findings as to neglect, we limit our consideration to abuse. Prior to its amendment in 1997, Section 32A-4-2 provided a definition for “abused child” and a separate definition for “physical abuse.”

B. “Abused child” means a child:

(1) who has suffered physical abuse, emotional abuse or psychological abuse inflicted by the child’s parent, guardian or custodian;
(2) who has suffered sexual abuse or sexual exploitation inflicted by the child’s parent, guardian or custodian;
(3) whose parent, guardian or custodian has knowingly, intentionally or negligently placed the child in a situation that may endanger the child’s life or health; or
(4) whose parent, guardian or custodian has knowingly or intentionally tortured, cruelly confined or cruelly punished the child.
D. “physical abuse” includes, but is not limited to, any case in which the child exhibits evidence of skin bruising, bleeding, malnutrition, failure to thrive, burns, fracture of any bone, subdural hematoma, soft tissue swelling or death and:
(1) there is not a justifiable explanation for the condition or death;
(2) the explanation given for the condition is at variance with the degree or nature of the condition;
(3) the explanation given for the death is at variance with the nature of the death; or
(4) circumstances indicate that the condition or death may not be the product of an accidental oceurrence[.]

(Emphasis added.) The 1997 amendment inserted an additional paragraph to the definition of “abused child” in Section 32A-4-2(B), designated as paragraph (1), and renumbered the other paragraphs (2) through (5). As currently written, Section 32A-4-2(B) reads: “ ‘abused child’ means a child: (1) who is at risk of suffering serious harm[.]” Section 32A-4-2(B)(l) (1997).

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Bluebook (online)
1998 NMCA 089, 963 P.2d 529, 125 N.M. 452, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-children-youth-families-department-v-vincent-l-nmctapp-1998.