Alsager v. DISTRICT COURT OF POLK CTY., IOWA,(JD), 73-79-2.

• Decision Date: 12 November 1974
• Docket Number: No. 73-79-2.,73-79-2.
• Citation: 384 F. Supp. 643
• Parties: Charles Leroy ALSAGER, Sr., and Darlene Lauvern Alsager, Plaintiffs, v. DISTRICT COURT OF POLK COUNTY, IOWA, (JUVENILE DIVISION), et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Southern District of Iowa

384 F. Supp. 643

Charles Leroy ALSAGER, Sr., and Darlene Lauvern Alsager, Plaintiffs, v. DISTRICT COURT OF POLK COUNTY, IOWA, (JUVENILE DIVISION), et al., Defendants.

No. 73-79-2.

United States District Court, S. D. Iowa, Central Division.

November 12, 1974.

Gordon E. Allen, Iowa Civil Liberties Union, Des Moines, Iowa, and Rena K. Uviller, Melvin L. Wulf and Burt Neuborne, Juvenile Rights Project, American Civil Liberties Union, New York City, for plaintiffs.

Ray A. Fenton, County Atty., and Harold A. Young, Asst. County Atty., Polk County, Des Moines, Iowa, for defendants.

FINDINGS OF FACT, CONCLUSIONS OF LAW AND ORDER FOR JUDGMENT

HANSON, District Judge.

This cause of action was brought by a married couple, Charles and Darlene Alsager, who allege that their constitutional rights were violated by state court proceedings which resulted in the termination of their parental relationship as to five of their six children. Jurisdiction of this Court is invoked pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3).

The plaintiffs seek a declaratory judgment pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2201 to the effect that the termination proceedings conducted in the Polk County District Court were unconstitutional. While the plaintiffs directly attack the constitutionality of the Iowa statutory provisions which authorized the termination hearing, they have purposely avoided seeking to enjoin the enforcement of the state statute.

FINDINGS OF FACT

Charles and Darlene Alsager were residing at 614 East 30th Street, Des Moines, Iowa, in the summer of 1969. At that time Mr. Alsager was 36 years old, and Mrs. Alsager was 26 years old. The couple had been married eleven years and were the parents of six children: George, who was 10 in June of 1969; Wanda, who was 8; John, age 7; Charles, Jr., age 6; Michael, age 4; and Albert, who was less than one year old.

The Alsagers began to have contact with the juvenile authorities of the Polk County District Court as early as 1965, when George was adjudicated to be a "neglected child." This adjudication prompted a removal of George from his parents' home, and he was placed in at least two foster homes before he was returned to his parents in 1968.

In the spring and early summer of 1969, the probation department of the Polk County District Court received a number of complaints about the Alsager children from the family's neighbors. On June 13, 1969, Carl Parks, the Chief Probation Officer of the Polk County District Court, wrote a letter to the plaintiffs stating that his office had received a report about their children, and warning the parents that a petition might be filed by the neighbors seeking to remove the children from their custody.

On June 20, 1969, Jane Johnston, a probation officer with the Polk County Juvenile Court, visited the Alsager home. Miss Johnston spent approximately twenty minutes inside the Alsager residence, which at the time was occupied only by Mrs. Alsager and the baby, Albert. Based on her observations inside the house, and without seeing the other five children, Miss Johnston determined that all six children should immediately be removed to the Polk County Juvenile Home. This removal was to be temporary, pending a hearing to determine whether the children were "neglected" as defined by Section 232.2(15) of the Code of Iowa (1973). This hearing was held within one week from the initial removal, on June 26, 1969. As a result of the hearing, Polk County District Judge Don L. Tidrick found the children to be neglected, and ordered that they remain in the custody of the county court pending placement in a foster home or an institution.

Less than one month after the neglect ruling, Chief Probation Officer Parks filed a petition to institute proceedings to terminate the parent-child relationship in Polk County District Court.

This petition alleged that

the best interests of the children . . . require that the parent-child relationships . . . be terminated by the Court because said parents have substantially and continuously and repeatedly refused to give their children necessary parental care and protection and because said parents are unfit parents by reason of conduct detrimental to the physical or mental health or morals of their children.

Upon a filing of the petition, a guardian ad litem was appointed in behalf of the children. A copy of the petition was served upon the parents, who then retained counsel. On September 9, 1969, a termination hearing was held before Judge Tidrick. The parents were present at this hearing, accompanied by their counsel. The children's guardian ad litem was also present. On September 29, 1969, Judge Tidrick issued an order pertaining to the termination hearing. The judge stated that "adequate and sufficient cause" existed to terminate the parent-child relationship, but he declined to do so at that time, stating that "final termination of parental rights should not take place so long as there is any substantial hope that the parents will be able to improve to the extent that they can provide even minimal care." The order then continued the matter of termination of the parental rights. The two eldest children, George and Wanda, were released to the temporary custody of their parents. The four youngest children were ordered to remain in the custody of the court.

The court held a second hearing on the matter of termination on March 19, 1970. One week prior to this hearing the attorney who represented Charles and Darlene Alsager at the September proceedings was appointed to represent them at the March hearing. A final hearing on termination was held on May 22, 1970. On that day, Judge Tidrick issued his final termination order. He ruled that Wanda, who had been returned to her parents in September, would benefit by remaining in her parents' home. The Alsagers' parental rights "in and to" the other five children were terminated. This order of termination was affirmed by the Iowa Supreme Court on October 18, 1972, in a short opinion. See State v. Alsager, 201 N. W.2d 727 (Iowa 1972). No further proceedings were commenced on the state level subsequent to the decision of the Iowa Supreme Court. This lawsuit was instituted on March 28, 1973. Evidence was presented to the Court at a hearing on March 18, 1974. All post-trial briefs and exhibits have been submitted.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

The plaintiffs have raised a number of constitutional claims under 42 U.S. C. § 1983, which reads as follows:

Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress.

The plaintiffs seek to utilize Section 1983 as a jurisdictional basis for a declaratory judgment that the Iowa parent-child termination statutes under which the state proceedings were conducted are unconstitutional. Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that the standards of § 232.41 of the Code of Iowa (1973) are vague and ill-defined, in violation of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. They also assert that adequate notice of the proceedings was not given them, and that the use of hearsay evidence and the requirement of proof by a preponderance of the evidence serve to deny them Due Process. They further allege that the right to "family integrity" is protected by the First, Ninth and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution. While the plaintiffs' contentions undeniably constitute a direct attack on the Iowa termination statute and procedures, the plaintiffs have conscientiously avoided a request to enjoin the pertinent Iowa laws. They assert that absent a request for any injunctive relief pertaining to the statutes, one judge may properly declare the laws unconstitutional under 28 U.S.C. § 2201. Plaintiffs concede that if they were to seek an injunction the case would become one for a three-judge panel pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 2281.

In addition to their request for declaratory relief, the plaintiffs request that the Court grant any equitable relief it feels necessary to effectuate a declaration recognizing the Alsagers as the natural parents of their children, and that the Court grant any damages, up to $50,000, occasioned by the wilful violation of plaintiffs' rights.

Upon a full review of the record in this case, and a consideration of the evidence presented both by way of exhibits and at the hearing held on March 18, 1974, it is the conclusion of this Court that plaintiffs' request for declaratory relief must be denied. This conclusion is based upon a number of diverse factors, but is primarily influenced by the Court's belief that a grant of declaratory relief would be totally ineffectual given the facts of this case. In light of the Court's conclusion that declaratory relief should not be granted in this case, two major issues merit discussion: the propriety of one judge considering the case, and the merits of granting declaratory relief.

THE THREE-JUDGE COURT ISSUE

Section 2281 of Title 28 of the United States Code (1970) states:

An interlocutory or permanent injunction restraining the enforcement, operation or execution of any State statute by restraining the action of any officer of such State in the enforcement or execution of such statute or of an order made by an administrative board or commission acting under State statutes, shall not be granted by any district court or judge thereof upon the ground of unconstitutionality of such statute unless the application therefor is heard and determined by a district court of three judges under section 2284 of this title.

Throughout this litigation, the plaintiffs have asserted to this Court that the basic relief they seek...