Adoption of Emily, 87-933

• Decision Date: 06 April 1988
• Docket Number: No. 87-933,87-933
• Citation: 521 N.E.2d 399,25 Mass.App.Ct. 579
• Parties: ADOPTION OF EMILY.
• Court: Appeals Court of Massachusetts

Page 399

521 N.E.2d 399

25 Mass.App.Ct. 579

ADOPTION OF EMILY.

No. 87-933.

Appeals Court of Massachusetts,

Middlesex.

Argued Feb. 18, 1988.

Decided April 6, 1988.

Christina L. Harms, Boston, for Dept. of Social Services.

Bette A. Winik, Newton, for mother, was present but did not argue.

Before ARMSTRONG, DREBEN and WARNER, JJ.

WARNER, Justice.

On June 28, 1985, a District Court judge found the parents of Emily unfit and ordered her permanently committed to the care and custody of the Department of Social Services (department). See G.L. c. 119, § 26. On July 8, 1985, the father appealed, and the appeal was docketed in this court on March 5, 1987. Meanwhile, the department, on July 28, 1986, filed in a Probate Court a petition to dispense with the parents' consent to the adoption of Emily. See G.L. c. 210, § 3(b ).

On February 19, 1987, a Probate Court judge ordered that the trial of the petition to dispense with consent be postponed until after a decision had been rendered in the father's appeal in the District Court care and protection proceeding. The judge took this action, he said in part, because: "It would be incongruous for a Probate Court to allow a c. 210, § 3, petition and then have the Appeals Court reverse a District Court judgment which found a child to be in need of care and protection."

At the request of the department, the probate judge, on August 5, 1987, reserved and reported (see G.L. c. 215, § 13) the following question. "Whether G.L. [c. 210,] § 3(b ), permits a petition brought by the Department ... to be filed and a decree entered notwithstanding the pendency of an appeal from the allowance of an earlier care and protection proceeding brought under G.L. c. 119, § 24." In his reservation and report, the judge tells us that he postponed the trial on the petition to dispense with consent because: "I adopted the position that the G.L. c. 210, § 3, petition could not be heard while the appeal was pending." If the reported question were not moot, we would answer it "yes." ¹

In Adoption of a Minor, 386 Mass. 741, 438 N.E.2d 38 (1982), the court held that, "when a child's lawful parent is actively opposing a pending petition for care and custody of the child, neither the Department nor any other person has such 'care or custody' [see G.L. c. 210, § 3(a ) and (b ),] of the child as is necessary to initiate an adoption proceeding without parental consent" (at 748-749, 438 N.E.2d 38). In that case, a District Court judge had granted permanent custody of the child to the department in a care and protection proceeding. The mother appealed to the juvenile appeals session (an appellate route then prescribed, see G.L. c. 119, § 27, as appearing in St.1978, c. 478, § 51), and the appeal was pending when the foster parents (to whom the department had entrusted the care and custody of the child) filed a petition for adoption in a Probate Court. The Supreme Judicial Court pointed out the undesirable consequences (which troubled the probate judge in this case) of the possible conflict in orders where parallel proceedings are permitted. In explanation of its holding, however, the court said: "Our conclusions are based on, and limited to, the language of G.L. c. 210, § 3, and in the relationship between care and protection proceedings and adoption proceedings when both are opposed by the child's parents" (emphasis supplied). Id. at 749, 438 N.E.2d 38.

In obvious response to the decision in Adoption of a Minor, the Legislature amended G.L. c. 210, § 3(b ), by St.1983, c. 437. That amendment added, in pertinent part, the following sentence: "A petition brought pursuant to [G.L. c. 210, § 3(b ),] may be filed and a decree entered notwithstanding the pendency of a petition brought under chapter one hundred and nineteen [care and protection] ... regarding the same child" (emphasis supplied). ² The plain language of the 1983 amendment and the context in which it was adopted require the conclusion that it was the intent of the Legislature that the pendency of a care and protection proceeding at any stage should not preclude the department from proceeding with a petition to dispense with consent to adoption. Speedy resolution of cases involving issues of custody or adoption is desirable, see Custody of a Minor, 389 Mass. 755, 764 and n. 2, 452 N.E.2d 483 (1983), and that goal was the undoubted purpose of the 1983 and 1985 amendments to G.L. c. 210, § 3(b ). An equally important and complementary objective is the avoidance of conflicting orders in proceedings involving care and protection and dispensing with consent. There are salutary methods by which conflict and uncertainty may be minimized, if not resolved. ³ Given these remedies and the clear statement of the Commonwealth's policy by the amendments to G.L. c. 210, § 3(b ), we think no sensible distinction can be drawn between the appellate and any other stage in the course of a care and protection proceeding.

Because the question reported is moot, the report from the probate judge is discharged.

So ordered.

1 On August 21, 1987, this court affirmed the District Court order in the care and protection proceeding. See Care and Protection of Emily, 24 Mass.App.Ct. 1113, 511 N.E.2d 1115 (1987). The question in this case is, therefore, moot. The department urges us to decide the issue. We do so because the problem is of obvious public importance and is likely to arise again but, as here, evade review by an appellate court. See Brown v....