A.C., In Interest of, No. 87-43

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Iowa
• Writing for the Court: HARRIS; All justices concur except NEUMAN; NEUMAN
• Citation: 415 N.W.2d 609
• Parties: In the Interests of A.C., A.C., S.C., S.C., and J.C., Minor Children, Appellants, K.C., Natural Mother, Appellee.
• Decision Date: 25 November 1987
• Docket Number: No. 87-43

Page 609

415 N.W.2d 609 In the Interests of A.C., A.C., S.C., S.C., and J.C., Minor Children, Appellants,
K.C., Natural Mother, Appellee. No. 87-43. Supreme Court of Iowa. Nov. 25, 1987.
As Corrected Dec. 3, 1987.

Page 610

Jane A. Harlan, Newton, for appellants.

Gerald B. Feuerhelm, Des Moines, for appellee natural mother.

Thomas J. Miller, Atty. Gen., Gordon E. Allen, Deputy Atty. Gen., Charles K. Phillips, Asst. Atty. Gen., John Billingsley, Co. Atty., and Clifford D. Wendel, Asst. Co. Atty., for the State.

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P. Lewis Pitts, Jr., and Gayle Korotkin, Chapel Hill, N.C., for amicus curiae Christic Institute South.

Considered by HARRIS, P.J., and LARSON, SCHULTZ, LAVORATO, and NEUMAN, JJ.

HARRIS, Presiding Justice.

Five children, ranging in age from three months to ten years, were voluntarily placed under foster care by their mother on March 14, 1985. The placement soon became involuntary and this dispute centers around efforts by the Iowa department of human services to rehabilitate the mother and conflicting efforts by the foster parents to wrest the children from both their mother and the department. The district court, sitting as juvenile court, determined that efforts to help the mother to acquire parenting skills should continue. Hence the juvenile court rejected a petition to terminate the parent-child relationship. The court also rejected claims that custody of the children should remain with the foster parents. We think the parent-child relationship with the mother should be terminated. ¹ We agree with the juvenile court's rejection of the other claims.

It is readily apparent why the mother felt driven to voluntarily place the children into foster care and why the department felt compelled to resist her attempts to withdraw the placement. The mother suffers from a bipolar mental illness which causes an antisocial personality. She was hospitalized for this condition in Newton from March 1985 until May 15, 1985. She was then admitted to a group care facility at Ames, where she stayed until August 1986. She was thereafter removed to a halfway house in Cedar Rapids where she remained under counseling at the time of the hearing in juvenile court.

The evidence is overwhelming that, because of the mother's tragic condition, the children were physically neglected and abused. The children were ill-fed and were for the most part compelled to rely on one another for routine care and feeding. A department social worker described the mother's house as it appeared in early 1985:

The home was in substandard condition. There were windows broken out of the home.

The same witness earlier testified:

There was no food present in the house for the children particularly the infant child, [J.C.], who is three or four months old at this time. There was dog feces laying around the home which three year old [S.C.] proceeded to track around the whole house while we were there talking about placing the children. It's the worst cockroach situation I have ever seen. They were crawling on the walls in broad daylight which is not real typical, in everything we opened it was just infested with cockroaches. There were dirty dishes and clothing piled up around the house. We couldn't find any clothing to take for any of the five children that day, not even a pair of socks to put on [S.C.] to leave with.

The witness did express the opinion that the mother was not incapable of parenting the children but, when asked whether there was any way to scale her parenting abilities, replied: "On a motivational scale I think she is real high. I don't know how she would place on an abilities scale."

The two eldest children are bitterly hostile to their mother because of the neglect and because of violent physical abuse heaped upon the children by the mother and one of the mother's boyfriends. They related how one of the children's hair was pulled out by the mother. They also described beatings by the mother with a board and with a chain dog leash.

The mother is remorseful over her treatment of the children. She attributes her conduct, which she feels the children exaggerated, to her illness. At the time of her testimony she believed her illness was being controlled by medication and the counseling she was then receiving at the halfway house. She conceded, however, she was not yet well.

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Professional witnesses, testifying in the mother's behalf, were only cautiously optimistic about the mother's chance of improving. A psychiatrist familiar with the case testified:

A bipolar illness is a cyclical illness. It means that it comes and goes. And a person can go through life and have several cycles or episodes of the disease, and all of a sudden it will go away. It may not reappear again, and it may reappear. It is hard to say. So ... the medication is usually used to abate the cycle that a person is already in. It's possible that she could even go off her medicine and do well for the rest of her life. It's possible that she could go off her medicine and get sick again, or it's possible she could stay on her medicine and do well. It's really hard, because we can't predict the course of the illness. But as long as she maintains contact with somebody--and we know what medications now work because she's been on the medicine, so her prognosis can be good, and she can become functional again.

Q. Do you have any impression as to her potential for being able to care for five children? A. Well, that's a difficult question for me to answer as a psychiatrist. In my last two contacts with her, it's my feeling that there's not--there is no psychiatric reason now why she should not be able to care for her children. I certainly would not want to jump into it immediately. I would like--I think it should be something that is gradually done. But I have a lot of people who are bipolar patients who take their medication and do quite well as mothers and fathers. So long as she maintains herself on the medicine and she appears well and has contact with somebody who can assess how she's doing, I think it's possible.

No psychologist, psychiatrist, or other expert testified that the natural mother would be able to take care of her children in the near future. At best, from the mother's point of view, they merely testified there was no psychological reason she could not.

The department placed the children in the temporary care of Larry and Paula Mick, where they remained for about eighteen months. Not unexpectedly, in view of the children's past environment, a strong bond soon developed between the children and the Micks. The bonding was no accident. We emphatically agree with the juvenile court's conclusion that the Micks resolutely set out to make the temporary placement a permanent one, a charge they and the children deny.

I. Jane A. Harlan, a Newton lawyer who is a second cousin of Larry Mick, was appointed guardian ad litem for the children and in that capacity brought this proceeding under Iowa Code chapter 232 to terminate the relationship between the children and their natural parents. ² The juvenile court's refusal to terminate the relationship is the first and principal issue in the case.

The juvenile court found that the mother could resume her parental role. It was persuaded by testimony that the natural mother, through medication and counseling, was able to control her mental illness and there was no reason she could not take care of her children.

Iowa Code section 232.116(5) (1985) states that the court may order termination of the parent-child relationship if it finds:

a. The child has been adjudicated a child in need of assistance pursuant to section 232.96; and

b. The custody of the child has been transferred from the child's parents for placement pursuant to section 232.102 for at least twelve of the last eighteen months; and

c. There is clear and convincing evidence that the child cannot be returned to the custody of the child's parents as provided in section 232.102.

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Of these three requirements there is no question here that (a) the children were adjudicated children in need of assistance, and (b) custody of the children was transferred from the natural mother for placement for at least twelve of the last eighteen months.

The provision at issue here is (c). We must examine the record to determine whether there was clear and convincing evidence that the children cannot be returned to the mother's custody.

We explained in In re T.D.C., 336 N.W.2d 738 (Iowa 1983):

Several previously enunciated principles have served to guide our examination of the record before us. Appellate review of the proceedings to terminate a parent-child relationship is de novo; thus "it is our duty to review the facts as well as the law and adjudicate rights anew on those propositions properly preserved and presented to us." We accord weight to the fact findings of the juvenile court, especially when considering the credibility of the witnesses whom the court heard and observed firsthand, but we are not bound by those findings.

Central to a determination of this nature are the best interests of the child. In this connection we look to the child's long range as well as immediate interest. Hence, we necessarily consider what the future likely holds for the child if returned to his or her parents. Insight for this determination can be gained from evidence of the parent's past performance, for that performance may be indicative of the quality of the future care that parent is capable of providing.

Id. at 740-41 (quoting In re Dameron, 306 N.W.2d 743, 745 (Iowa 1981)) (citations omitted).

The State has the duty to assure that every child within its borders receives proper care and treatment, and must intercede when parents fail to provide it. In re Dameron, 306 N.W.2d at 745. Our current statutory termination provisions are preventative as well as remedial. Id. Child custody should be quickly fixed and little disturbed. In re...