State v. L. C.

228 P.3d 594, 234 Or. App. 347, 2010 Ore. App. LEXIS 273
CourtCourt of Appeals of Oregon
DecidedMarch 17, 2010
Docket7256J; Petition Numbers 7256J3, 7256J4; A143200; 7257J; Petition Numbers 7257J3, 7257J4; A143201
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 228 P.3d 594 (State v. L. C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Oregon primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. L. C., 228 P.3d 594, 234 Or. App. 347, 2010 Ore. App. LEXIS 273 (Or. Ct. App. 2010).

Opinion

ORTEGA, J.

The state appeals from permanency judgments concerning two children. In those judgments, the juvenile court changed the permanency plan for the children from “APPLA” — that is, “another planned permanent living arrangement”1 — to adoption and ordered the Department of Human Services (DHS) to file petitions to terminate mother’s and father’s parental rights; the court declined to find that DHS had made reasonable efforts. In this unusual case, father and mother support, while DHS opposes, a permanency plan of adoption. We conclude that, because the record as of the permanency hearing shows that it is unlikely that an adoptive placement will be found for the children, the juvenile court erred by changing the permanency plan to adoption and, consequently, by ordering DHS to file a termination petition. We therefore reverse and remand.

We review to determine whether a preponderance of the evidence supports the juvenile court’s determination that a change in the permanency plan is in the children’s best interests. State ex rel Dept. of Human Services v. S.L., 211 Or App 362, 371, 155 P3d 73 (2007). The state has not set forth reasons that we should exercise our discretion to review de novo, ORAP 5.40(8)(a), and we decline to do so. ORS 19.415(3)(b); see also Or Laws 2009, ch 231, §§ 2, 3 (establishing the effective date for the change in the standard of review). Although the parties vigorously dispute the legal implications of the pertinent facts, the facts themselves are not disputed.

[351]*351The children at issue are sisters who were, at the time of the permanency hearing, ages 14 and 10. Mother and father became the children’s foster parents in October 2004 and adopted them after their biological parents’ rights were terminated. The decree of adoption issued in October 2007.

A little less than a year later, in August 2008, the children reported that father had sexually abused them. DHS removed the children from the family home and placed them in foster care. Father denied the allegations, and mother, who did not believe the children, was unwilling to enter into a safety plan. The juvenile court took jurisdiction as to mother in September 2008 and as to father in January 2009. Both parents contended that the children had made the allegations in hopes of being reunited with their biological mother and, although it did not take testimony as to that contention, the juvenile court apparently agreed with parents’ view.

No one contends that reunification of the family is possible in this case. The children do not want to return to father and mother. Parents likewise do not want the family to be reunited, nor would they provide the names of relatives with whom the children might be placed. In a January 2009 permanency judgment, the juvenile court approved a permanency plan of APPLA.

After removing the children, DHS attempted to recruit an adoptive family and detailed those recruitment efforts for the court, but it was not confident that it would find a suitable family. DHS took the position that “[t]he age of these children, combined with their history, high needs and the unsuccessful recruitment to date leaves DHS unable to conclude that it can successfully place and maintain the children in any adoptive placement.” At a review hearing shortly before the permanency hearing, no one questioned DHS’s representation that it was “using all the recruitment resources possible, including things we don’t typically use this early in recruitment for kids.” Father’s attorney observed that “taking a look at the previous psychological [assessments] concerning the children, and taking a look at where the children have indicated that they want to be, back [352]*352with the [biological] mother, I don’t see any placement being successful for them.”

Although the juvenile court was critical during the permanency hearing of what it characterized as DHS’s position that “we can’t file a petition to terminate] parental rights at this time and get somebody else in the whole wide world to step up and be adoptive [resources],” we do not understand the court to have found that a suitable adoptive placement was likely to be located. Indeed, shortly before the permanency hearing, the juvenile court itself expressed skepticism regarding the likelihood of an adoptive placement. The court’s primary concern was its sense that “the parents cannot be expected * * * to be able to perform as parents for these children. That is a basis for termination of parental rights.” After the permanency hearing, the court changed the permanency plan from AJPPLA to adoption and ordered DHS to file a petition to terminate parental rights.

The state appeals and argues that, under the applicable statutes and administrative rules, DHS cannot petition for termination “unless it is reasonably certain that an adoptive placement for the children will be available.”2 In the state’s view, when severing the legal parent-child relationship would cause the children to become legal orphans rather than to be adopted, termination of parental rights is not in the children’s best interests.

Mother and father disagree. Mother argues that the juvenile code does not require that the filing of a termination petition wait until an adoptive placement is identified or approved or until DHS has determined that adoption is probable. Father also contends that permanency hearings require a focus on the children’s health and safety and that, given the breakdown of the family, it was in the children’s best interest to terminate parental rights.

The issue on appeal is whether the juvenile court erred by changing the permanency plan to adoption. Because [353]*353the record demonstrates that an adoptive placement for the children is unlikely to be found, we conclude that the court erred.

Although the statutes concerning termination of parental rights do not directly address- the relationship between the filing of a termination petition and a future adoption, the statutory scheme suggests that the legislature intended the termination of parental rights to result in the creation of a new parent-child relationship through adoption. ORS 419B.498(3) provides, in part, that a petition for termination of parental rights may not be filed “until the court has determined that the permanency plan for the child or ward should be adoption after a permanency hearing.” In the order entered after the permanency hearing, the court must determine, as part of the permanency plan, whether and when the ward will be placed for adoption and a petition for termination of parental rights will be filed; no such determination is required if the plan is a legal guardianship or APPLA. ORS 419B.476(5)(b).

Furthermore, under ORS 419B.476(5)(d), if the court determines that the permanency plan should be adoption, the court must determine whether one of the circumstances described in ORS 419B.498(2) is applicable.

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Related

Dept. of Human Services v. L. B.
335 Or. App. 452 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2024)
Dept. of Human Services v. C. M. D.
300 Or. App. 175 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2019)
Department of Human Services v. T. L.
379 P.3d 741 (Marion County Circuit Court, Oregon, 2016)
Department of Human Services v. T. M. S.
359 P.3d 425 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2015)
Department of Human Services v. M. H.
337 P.3d 976 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2014)
State v. LC
228 P.3d 594 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 2010)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
228 P.3d 594, 234 Or. App. 347, 2010 Ore. App. LEXIS 273, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-l-c-orctapp-2010.