Taylor v. Indiana Family & Social Services Administration

699 N.E.2d 1186, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 1626, 1998 WL 670424
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 30, 1998
Docket49A02-9801-CV-11
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 699 N.E.2d 1186 (Taylor v. Indiana Family & Social Services Administration) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Taylor v. Indiana Family & Social Services Administration, 699 N.E.2d 1186, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 1626, 1998 WL 670424 (Ind. Ct. App. 1998).

Opinions

OPINION

HOFFMAN, Judge.

Appellants-plaintiffs James and Janet Taylor (“the Taylors”) appeal from the trial court’s judgment upholding the revocation of their foster family home license by the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration (“FSSA”). The relevant facts appear below.

The Taylors were awarded a foster family home license in 1987 by the Marion County Office of Family and Children (“OFC”), a division of the Indiana Division of Family and Children, which in turn is a division of FSSA. In February of 1994, a foster parent complained to OFC that Janet had allegedly struck a foster child who was temporarily under the Taylors’ care. OFC received a second physical discipline complaint about Janet in May of 1994. Janet denied the first allegation but admitted to the second allegation of physical discipline, which is prohibited under OFC policy. On June 1, 1994, the Taylors signed a contract with OFC in which .they agreed to refrain from using corporal punishment on foster children in their care and to attend a training session on discipline. Under the terms of the contract, OFC could revoke the Taylors’ foster care license in the event of a subsequent corporal punishment complaint against them. The Taylors completed the discipline training session in conjunction with their mandated yearly foster care training.

In early 1995, a social worker from a hospital treating one of the Taylors’ foster children filed complaints against Janet for allegedly failing to meet the child’s emotional needs and for allegedly missing scheduled appointments to treat the child’s medical condition. The Family Connection Center also filed a complaint against Janet for allegedly making an insensitive remark to a foster child and for allegedly “yanking” and “jerking” the child. The Taylors’ OFC caseworker, Deanna Cox, expressed her concerns regarding Janet’s ability to fulfill the emotional needs of the Taylors’ foster children to her supervisor, Debra Blume, and to the caseworker responsible for placing children in the Taylors’ home, Angela Coulon.

On March 3, 1995, Coulon visited the Tay-lors’ home and reviewed the above concerns with Janet. Coulon advised Janet that she and her family would be required to complete a “home-based nurturing program”; Coulon further advised Janet that no more foster children would be placed in her home unless the Taylors participated in the program. Coulon gave Janet a pamphlet describing the nurturing program and told her to schedule an appointment to discuss the program.

On March 29,1995, Janet met with Coulon and Blume at the OFC. Coulon and Blume advised Taylor that if she failed to participate in the program, OFC would no longer use her home as a foster home and would allow her license to remain open until the last foster child could be removed. The Taylors did not participate in the nurturing program, and the last foster child was removed from their home on August 8, 1995. In a letter dated September 27, 1995, OFC recommended to FSSA that the Taylors’ foster care license be revoked pursuant to 470 I.A.C. § 3-l-3(a): “Foster parents shall be mature individuals who are capable of exercising and do exercise good judgment in the handling of a child.” In a letter dated February 8,1996, FSSA’s Division of Family and Children informed the Taylors that the agency was revoking their foster family home license “based upon non-compliance with the Indiana Licensing Law [IND. CODE § ] 12-17.4—4-31” and 470 I.A.C. § 3-1-3.

The Taylors appealed FSSA’s action, and a hearing was held before an administrative law judge (“ALJ”) on May 9, 1996. On June 14, 1996, the ALJ issued her findings of fact and decision, which upheld FSSA’s revocation of the Taylors’ license. At the Taylors’ request, FSSA conducted an agency review of the ALJ’s decision on July 23, 1996. On August 9,1996, FSSA issued a notice of final agency action, which affirmed the ALJ’s decision. The Taylors filed a petition for judicial review on September 11, 1996. The trial court heard oral arguments on May 28, 1997, and issued its findings of fact and conclusions [1189]*1189of law on September 11, 1997; the trial court’s judgment sustained FSSA’s revocation of the Taylors’ license. The Taylors now appeal.

The Taylors raise five issues for review; however, we need only address the following issues:

(1) whether the trial court exceeded its scope of judicial review of FSSA’s action;
(2) whether the trial court erred by determining that IND. CODE § 12-17.4-4-31 does not provide the exclusive bases for FSSA to revoke a foster family home license; and
(3) whether the trial court erred by determining that 470 I.A.C. § 3-1-3 is neither vague on its face nor as applied.

“ “When reviewing the decision of an administrative agency, this [Cjourt stands in the same position as the trial court.’” Family and Social Services Administration v. Calvert, 672 N.E.2d 488, 492 (Ind.Ct.App.

1996), trans. denied, 683 N.E.2d 591 (Ind.

1997), quoting and citing SSU Fed’n Teachers v. Board of Directors, 656 N.E.2d 832, 835 (Ind.Ct.App.1995). “We may not retry the facts or substitute our judgment on factual matters for that of the agency.” Calvert, 672 N.E.2d at 492. This Court’s review of an agency’s decision cannot be considered de novo in the sense of a complete retrial of the issues involved; rather, we must “go no further than to examine the propriety of the agency’s facts as the agency found them and the propriety of the agency’s order in light of the facts found.” Baseball, Inc. v. Dept. of State Revenue, 672 N.E.2d 1368, 1375 (Ind. Ct.App.1996), trans. denied. Finally, both trial and appellate courts are bound by the agency’s findings of fact “if those findings are supported by substantial evidence.” Crutcher v. Dabis, 582 N.E.2d 449, 450 (Ind.Ct.App.1991), trans. denied.

In the case at bar, the trial court entered its own findings pursuant to IND. CODE § 4-21.5-5-14(c) (“[t]he court shall make findings of fact on each material issue on which the court’s decision is based” in reviewing an agency action) and Ind. Trial Rule 52(A)(2), which requires a court to make special findings of fact without request “in any review of actions by an administrative agency.” Instead of restricting its review of FSSA’s action to the ALJ’s 19 findings and the evidence upon which those findings were based, the trial court inexplicably reweighed evidence, reassessed the credibility of witnesses, and entered 30 findings of its own. Because the trial court exceeded its scope of review with respect to the ALJ’s findings, we must ignore its findings of fact, conclusions of law, and judgment regarding FSSA’s revocation of the Taylors’ license.

This Court is further required to disregard the trial court’s findings, conclusions, and judgment because, as noted above, we must stand in the same position as the trial court in reviewing FSSA’s action. Calvert, 672 N.E.2d at 492.

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Taylor v. Indiana Family & Social Services Administration
699 N.E.2d 1186 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1998)

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Bluebook (online)
699 N.E.2d 1186, 1998 Ind. App. LEXIS 1626, 1998 WL 670424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/taylor-v-indiana-family-social-services-administration-indctapp-1998.