DocketNumber: Docket No. 306279
Citation Numbers: 297 Mich. App. 35
Judges: Boonstra, Kelly, Wilder
Filed Date: 6/5/2012
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 9/9/2022
Respondent, W Metts, appeals as of right a circuit court order terminating her parental rights to her minor children pursuant to MCL 712A.19b(3)(b)(i), (b)(ii), (c)(i), (c)(ii), (g), (j), and (k)(iii). We affirm the trial court’s order with respect to the minors RO, AMI, and AM2. With respect to the minor twins, DM1 and DM2, we affirm the portion of the circuit court’s order determining that at least one statutory ground supported termination, but vacate the court’s best-interest analysis and remand for further consideration of that issue.
I. BASIC FACTS
Respondent is the mother AMI, RO, AM2, and the twins. The twins are of different paternity than the
The trial court entered the initial dispositional order in January 2008. The children were continued in foster care, and respondent was directed to participate in services, including parenting classes, individual counseling, anger management, and family counseling if recommended; she was also directed to obtain suitable housing and a legal source of income. Respondent was granted “unsupervised weekend and overnight visits with goal of reunification with mom within six weeks [.]”
Respondent made progress toward being reunited with her children. She secured suitable housing and a job, and began attending parenting classes, anger-management classes, and individual therapy. However, individual parenting time was terminated in June 2008 after respondent failed to seek medical attention for the children and left the children with a person who was not authorized to baby-sit them. Respondent was also arrested and lost her job and home in May 2008, and
Respondent eventually secured somewhat more stable housing and cash and food assistance. She also gave birth to her third child, a boy, AM2, in 2009. The court authorized the DHS to return the two eldest children, AMI and RO, to respondent with in-home services as long as her housing situation was appropriate and “mother’s drug screens are negative.” Respondent continued to work well with DHS, and the court terminated its jurisdiction in October 2009. The twins were born in January 2010 and remained in respondent’s custody.
The DHS filed another petition for temporary custody in March 2011 following allegations of physical child abuse by respondent and her mother. Respondent admitted to pushing her eldest child, AMI, and scratching her face, and admitted that her mother, Kim Parks, who had a criminal history of felony assault convictions, had been living with her and the children for about three months. Respondent admitted that “she had observed Kim Parks being physically aggressive towards the children” and that “she had noticed changes in her children’s behaviors since Kim Parks came to reside in their home.”
Respondent pleaded no contest to the allegations against her and admitted physical child abuse occurring on several occasions. She also admitted that she had been previously diagnosed with “psychiatric issues” and was not currently taking her prescribed medication. Respondent was evaluated by a counselor from the court’s Clinic for Child Study and was given a poor prognosis concerning her ability to provide all five of her children a safe and
Respondent indicated her willingness to continue to attend therapy and anger-management classes and take psychiatric medication. The trial court found that several statutory grounds for termination of parental rights had been demonstrated by clear and convincing evidence and that termination of respondent’s parental rights was in the children’s best interests.
II. STANDARD OF REVIEW
A court may terminate a respondent’s parental rights if one or more of the statutory grounds for termination listed in MCL 712A.19b(3) have been proven by clear and convincing evidence. Once a statutory ground for termination has been proven, the trial court must find that termination is in the child’s best interests before it can terminate parental rights. MCL 712A.19b(5); MCR 3.977(E)(4). “We review for clear error both the court’s decision that a ground for termination has been proven by clear and convincing evidence and, where appropriate, the court’s decision regarding the child’s best interest” under MCL 712A.19b(5). In re Trejo Minors,
Ill STATUTORY GROUNDS FOR TERMINATION
We conclude that the trial court did not clearly err by finding that grounds for termination under MCL 712A.19b(3)(j) were established by clear and convincing legally admissible evidence. See In re Utrera, 281 Mich App 1, 16-17; 761 NW2d 253 (2008); MCR 3.977(E)(3) and (K). The evidence showed that respondent had been struggling with her anger-management problem for years. She received treatment for that problem when the two eldest children were previously court wards, and again in 2010 and early 2011. Nevertheless, she was unable to control her anger, even after she resumed her anger-management classes in May 2011. She flew into a rage during a June 2011 family visit and was arrested for disturbing the peace in August 2011 after an altercation with a teacher and the police. The evidence showed that the older children were mimicking respondent’s behavior. Therefore, the trial court could properly find that the children were reasonably likely to be harmed if returned to respondent’s home. Only one statutory ground for termination need be established. In re CR, 250 Mich App 185, 207; 646 NW2d 506 (2002).
IV BEST-INTEREST DETERMINATION
In deciding whether termination is in the child’s best interests, the court may consider the child’s bond to the
We hold that the trial court has a duty to decide the best interests of each child individually. See Foskett v Foskett, 247 Mich App 1, 11; 634 NW2d 363 (2001); see also In re HRC, 286 Mich App 444, 457; 781 NW2d 105 (2009). Although “in most cases it will be in the best interests of each child to keep brothers and sisters together ..., if keeping the children together is contrary to the best interests of an individual child, the best interests of that child will control.” Wiechmann v Wiechmann, 212 Mich App 436, 440; 538 NW2d 57 (1995); see also Foskett, 247 Mich App at 11. While Foskett and Wiechmann were child custody disputes in which the children’s best interests were analyzed under the framework of the Child Custody Act, MCL 722.21 et seq., the same principle — that each child be treated as an individual — applies with equal force in termination-of-parental-rights cases under the juvenile code, MCL 712A.1 et seq. It is, therefore, incumbent on the trial court to view each child individually when determining whether termination of parental rights is in that child’s best interests.
However, because “a child’s placement with relatives weighs against termination under MCL 712A.19a(6)(a),” the fact that a child is living with relatives when the case proceeds to termination is a factor to be considered in determining whether termination is in the child’s best interests. In re Mason, 486 Mich 142, 164; 782 NW2d 747 (2010). Although the trial court may terminate parental rights in lieu of placement with relatives if it finds that termination is in the child’s best interests, In re IEM, 233 Mich App 438, 453; 592 NW2d 751 (1999), overruled on other grounds by In re Morris, 491 Mich 81; 815 NW2d 62 (2012); In re McIntyre, 192 Mich App 47, 52-53; 480 NW2d 293 (1991), the fact that the children are in the care of a relative at the time of the termination hearing is an “explicit factor to consider in determining whether termination was in the children’s best interests,” Mason, 486 Mich at 164. A trial court’s failure to explicitly address whether termination is appropriate in light of the children’s placement with relatives renders the factual record inadequate to make a best-interest determination and requires reversal. Mason, 486 Mich at 163-165; In re Mays, 490 Mich 993, 994 (2012).
The trial court did not expressly address the fact that the two youngest children were residing with a paternal
Affirmed with respect to the minor children RO, AMI, and AM2. Affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings with respect to the minor children DM1 and DM2. We do not retain jurisdiction.