State Ex Rel. Zd

2007 UT App 33, 156 P.3d 844, 2007 WL 417028
CourtCourt of Appeals of Utah
DecidedFebruary 8, 2007
Docket20030750-CA
StatusPublished

This text of 2007 UT App 33 (State Ex Rel. Zd) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Utah primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. Zd, 2007 UT App 33, 156 P.3d 844, 2007 WL 417028 (Utah Ct. App. 2007).

Opinion

156 P.3d 844 (2007)
2007 UT App 33

STATE of Utah, in the interest of Z.D. and A.D., persons under eighteen years of age.
S.B.D. and L.D., Appellants,
v.
State of Utah, Appellee.

No. 20030750-CA.

Court of Appeals of Utah.

February 8, 2007.

Sara Pfrommer, Law Offices of Sara Pfrommer, Park City, for Appellants.

Mark L. Shurtleff, atty. gen., and John M. Peterson, asst. atty. gen., Salt Lake City, for Appellee.

Martha Pierce and Robert N. Parrish, Salt Lake City, Guardians Ad Litem.

*845 Before BENCH, P.J., BILLINGS and THORNE, JJ.

OPINION

THORNE, Judge:

¶ 1 We are directed to review this matter a second time in light of the Utah Supreme Court's recent decision in In re Z.D., 2006 UT 54, 147 P.3d 401. We now affirm the judgment of the juvenile court.

BACKGROUND

¶ 2 On November 17, 2002, seven-month-old Z.D. was diagnosed with a broken femur. After an investigation, the State filed a petition with the juvenile court, alleging that Z.D.'s injury was the result of abuse or neglect by his father (Father) while Z.D. was in Father's care on Saturday, November 16. Father denied any wrongdoing and presented an alternate theory alleging that Z.D. was injured on Wednesday, November 13, when his grandmother bent his leg while placing him in a walker. After a lengthy trial and testimony from medical experts on both sides, the juvenile court concluded that Z.D.'s injury was nonaccidental; that it occurred on Saturday, November 16; and that Father was responsible for the injury.

¶ 3 Father appealed to this court, which reversed the juvenile court judgment based on insufficiency of the evidence. See In re Z.D., 2004 UT App 261, 98 P.3d 40 (subsequent history omitted). This court was, in turn, reversed by the Utah Supreme Court on certiorari review. See In re Z.D., 2006 UT 54, 147 P.3d 401. Both of these published decisions contain extensive factual summaries of the proceedings below, and we do not repeat those facts here.

ISSUE AND STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 4 The issue in this case is the sufficiency of the evidence to support the juvenile court's factual findings. The Utah Supreme Court has directed us to review the record to determine whether the result is "against the clear weight of the evidence" or leaves us "with a firm and definite conviction that a mistake has been made." In re Z.D., 2006 UT 54 at ¶ 40, 147 P.3d 401; see also Utah R. Civ. P. 52(a) ("Findings of fact, whether based on oral or documentary evidence, shall not be set aside unless clearly erroneous, and due regard shall be given to the opportunity of the trial court to judge the credibility of the witnesses.").

ANALYSIS

¶ 5 This court previously reversed the juvenile court in this matter. See In re Z.D., 2004 UT App 261, 98 P.3d 40 (subsequent history omitted). In our 2004 decision, we focused on the clear and convincing standard of proof below and determined that "[t]he evidence does not clearly and convincingly establish that Z.D.'s fracture was caused by an axial load sometime on Saturday when he was in Father's care." Id. at ¶ 27. Relying on existing caselaw, we concluded that "we cannot say that, given the evidence presented, `the trier of facts could reasonably conclude that it [was] highly probable' that the fracture was the result of nonaccidental trauma inflicted by Father on Saturday afternoon." Id. at ¶ 26 (alteration in original) (quoting Lovett v. Cont'l Bank & Trust Co., 4 Utah 2d 76, 286 P.2d 1065, 1068 (1955)).

¶ 6 The Utah Supreme Court has now redirected the approach to appellate review of a trial judge's factual findings, stating that "it is not the role of the appellate court to reverse a trial court merely because it is convinced that the evidence is inadequate to sustain the result under the standard of proof applied below." In re Z.D., 2006 UT 54, ¶ 40, 147 P.3d 401. Instead, "[t]he result must be against the clear weight of the evidence or leave the appellate court with a firm and definite conviction that a mistake has been made." Id.

¶ 7 The supreme court also emphasized a duty on the part of appellate courts to review the entire factual record, or at least the portion marshaled by the parties, when evaluating sufficiency of the evidence claims:

It is . . . the responsibility of the appellate court to provide some indication that it performed its sufficiency of the evidence review in the context of the whole record, or at least that portion of the record to which its attention was drawn by the appellant's *846 marshaling obligation or the appellee's response to the appellant's marshaled evidence.

Id. at ¶ 39. Accordingly, we have reviewed portions of the voluminous record in this case that were identified in the State's brief as bearing on the various fact findings challenged by Father. This review has convinced us that the juvenile court's ultimate factual conclusion that Z.D.'s leg fracture was a nonaccidental injury inflicted by Father on Saturday, November 16, 2002, is not clearly erroneous.[1]

¶ 8 It appears that the crucial determination in this matter is the timing of Z.D.'s injury. If Z.D.'s leg fracture occurred on Saturday while in Father's exclusive care, it is reasonable to infer that the injury was inflicted by Father and was nonaccidental. These inferences arise from common sense and the other evidence in the record, without reliance on the presumption contained in the former Utah Code section 78-3a-305.1. See Utah Code Ann. § 78-3a-305.1 (2002) (repealed 2005) ("In determining whether a minor is an abused or neglected child it may be presumed that the person having the minor under his direct and exclusive care and control at the time of the abuse is responsible for the abuse or neglect."). As pointed out by Justice Wilkins,

[n]o one suggests that this young child broke his own leg. He was too young to engage in any purposeful activity that presented such a danger. He was injured either by the abuse or neglect of his father, as the juvenile court found, or by the abuse or neglect of someone else into whose care his father or mother had placed him.

In re Z.D., 2006 UT 54 at ¶ 58, 147 P.3d 401 (Wilkins, Assoc. C.J., concurring). On the other hand, if the evidence does not establish Saturday as the date of Z.D.'s injury, there is no reason to tie the injury to Father and perhaps less reason to classify the injury as nonaccidental.

¶ 9 The juvenile court found that the injury did occur on Saturday while Z.D. was in his Father's care. This finding is amply supported by the evidence. Despite the painful nature of a fracture such as Z.D.'s,[2] there is nothing in the record indicating that anyone noticed anything wrong with Z.D.'s leg prior to Saturday. On Friday, Z.D. had received a flu shot in his left leg, the same leg that was ultimately determined to be fractured, yet neither his doctor nor the nurse administering the shot noticed anything amiss. Dr. Bruce Herman, a pediatrician who led the investigation into Z.D.'s injury, was also adamant, and corroborated by two other doctors, that both Father and Z.D.'s mother (Mother) had described Z.D. bearing weight on his legs without distress on Saturday morning. Dr. Herman concluded:

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Related

Lovett v. Continental Bank and Trust Company
286 P.2d 1065 (Utah Supreme Court, 1955)
State v. Gamblin
2000 UT 44 (Utah Supreme Court, 2000)
State v. Walker
743 P.2d 191 (Utah Supreme Court, 1987)
State Ex Rel. Z.D.
2004 UT App 261 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2004)
S.B.D. v. State
2006 UT 54 (Utah Supreme Court, 2006)
State Ex Rel. Z.D.
2007 UT App 33 (Court of Appeals of Utah, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2007 UT App 33, 156 P.3d 844, 2007 WL 417028, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-zd-utahctapp-2007.