Croft v. Westmoreland County Children and Youth Services

• Citation: 103 F.3d 1123
• Decision Date: 06 January 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-3528,95-3528
• Parties: Henry L. CROFT, Jr.; Carol Croft, Individually and as Parents and Natural Guardians of Chynna Croft, A Minor, Appellants, v. WESTMORELAND COUNTY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES; Westmoreland County; Carla Danovsky, Appellees.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (3rd Circuit)

Page 1123

103 F.3d 1123

Henry L. CROFT, Jr.; Carol Croft, Individually and as Parents and Natural Guardians of Chynna Croft, A Minor, Appellants, v. WESTMORELAND COUNTY CHILDREN AND YOUTH SERVICES Westmoreland County; Carla Danovsky, Appellees.

No. 95-3528.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued June 28, 1996.

Decided Jan. 6, 1997.

Alexander H. Lindsay, Jr., Susan S. Jackson (argued), Lindsay, Lutz, Jackson, Pawk & McKay, Butler, PA, for Appellants.

Sherry L. Halfhill (argued) Burns, White & Hickton, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellee Westmoreland County Children and Youth Services and Appellee Carla Danovsky.

David J. Singley (argued), Israel, Wood & Puntil, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellee County of Westmoreland.

Before: BECKER, NYGAARD and LEWIS, Circuit Judges.

OPINION OF THE COURT

NYGAARD, Circuit Judge.

Plaintiffs-Appellants, Dr. Henry L. Croft, Jr., and Carol Croft, individually and as parents and natural guardians of Chynna Croft, appeal an order of the district court granting summary judgment for defendants-appellees, Carla Danovsky, Westmoreland County Children and Youth Services, and Westmoreland County. We will reverse and remand.

I.

On February 1, 1993, Gerald Sopko, Assistant Director of the Westmoreland County Children's Bureau received a call from Childline, informing him that Dr. Croft was sexually abusing his daughter, Chynna. Sopko was further told that the child slept with her parents and that she had recently been out of the house naked, walked to a neighbor's house, knocked on the door, and told the neighbors that she was "sleeping with mommy and daddy."

Barbara Jollie, Program Director for the Assessment Department of the Westminster County Children's Bureau, assigned the matter to Carla Danovsky for investigation. Danovsky, accompanied by State Police Trooper Griffin, went to the Croft home that night. Danovsky told Dr. Croft she was investigating him for possible sexual abuse of his daughter based on the Childline report. Dr. Croft consented to be interviewed.

Dr. Croft explained that Chynna had indeed, in April of 1992, left her bed without waking her parents, gone downstairs and outside, and locked herself out of the house. She then went to the house of her babysitter/nanny, a short distance from the Croft home, wearing her pajama top and holding her pajama bottoms with a soiled diaper inside. He further provided Danovsky with the telephone number of the nanny who could verify his version of events.

Dr. Croft agreed that his daughter had seen him naked and that, in fact, the family vacationed in the French West Indies where nude beaches are routine. Dr. Croft stated that his wife sunbathed nude around Chynna. He explained that Chynna suffered from seizures and, although she regularly slept in her parents' bed so they could be nearby if necessary, she slept naked only rarely. Henry and Carol Croft slept clothed. Dr. Croft told Danovsky that he had applied medicinal creams to her vaginal area when she had a rash. He denied sexually abusing Chynna.

Danovsky gave Dr. Croft an ultimatum: unless he left his home and separated himself from his daughter until the investigation was complete, she would take Chynna physically from the home that night and place her in foster care. Dr. Croft then left the room and Danovsky interviewed Carol Croft while Chynna sat in her lap. Carol Croft confirmed Dr. Croft's version of the April 1992 incident when Chynna locked herself out of the house. Finally, Danovsky questioned Chynna, who also confirmed Dr. Croft's version of the lock-out incident. Chynna provided no indication that she had ever been sexually abused. Danovsky then reiterated her ultimatum, that unless Dr. Croft immediately left his home and had no contact with his daughter, Danovsky would remove Chynna from the home that very night and place her in foster care. Faced with this dilemma, Dr. Croft complied with her ultimatum, and left his home, wife and daughter. ¹

Danovsky testified to some inconsistencies between the statements of the Croft parents. She testified that Carol Croft said that Chynna never saw Henry Croft swimming naked, and that she sunbathed topless but not totally nude. One of the parents informed Danovsky that Chynna never slept naked in their bed, while the other said she was not clothed all the time. In sum, however, the differences were insignificant and reasonable under the circumstances. Danovsky also testified that, pursuant to County policy, a parent accused of sexual abuse must prove beyond any certainty that there was no sexual abuse before she would be permitted to leave a child with his or her parents. She further testified that if a County caseworker does not know whether or not the allegation is true, the child will be separated from the alleged perpetrator. Danovsky also testified that at the conclusion of her interview with the Crofts, she was uncertain whether any sexual abuse had occurred.

The Crofts filed a complaint in the federal district court against Westmoreland County Children and Youth Services (WCCYS), Carla Danovsky and Westmoreland County. They alleged that the defendants had impermissibly interfered with their Fourteenth Amendment liberty interest in the companionship of their daughter.

Defendants filed motions to dismiss the complaint, which, since discovery had been completed, were considered as motions for summary judgment. They argued that defendant Danovsky was entitled to qualified immunity for her actions and that the county and WCCYS enjoyed municipal immunity from the charges. The court entered summary judgment against the Crofts on all three counts, asserting that the Crofts would impermissibly have the court elevate their right to freedom of intimate association above Defendants' obligation to protect children. The Crofts timely appealed. ²

II.

We recognize the constitutionally protected liberty interests that parents have in the custody, care and management of their children. See Lehr v. Robertson, 463 U.S. 248, 258, 103 S.Ct. 2985, 2991-92, 77 L.Ed.2d 614 (1983); Myers v. Morris, 810 F.2d 1437, 1462 (8th Cir.1987). We also recognize that this interest is not absolute. Martinez v. Mafchir, 35 F.3d 1486, 1490 (10th Cir.1994); Myers, 810 F.2d at 1462. Indeed, this liberty interest in familial integrity is limited by the compelling governmental interest in the protection of children --- particularly where the children need to be protected from their own parents. See Myers, 810 F.2d at 1462. The right to familial integrity, in other words, does not include a right to remain free from child abuse investigations. Watterson v. Page, 987 F.2d 1, 8 (1st Cir.1993).

The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment prohibits the government from interfering in familial relationships unless the government adheres to the requirements of procedural and substantive due process. ³ In determining whether the Crofts' constitutionally protected interests were violated, we must balance the fundamental liberty interests of the family unit with the compelling interests of the state in protecting children from abuse. Whatever disruption or disintegration of family life the Croft's may have suffered as a result of the county's child abuse investigation does not, in and of itself, constitute a constitutional deprivation. Watterson, 987 F.2d at 8; see also Frazier v. Bailey, 957 F.2d 920, 931 (1st Cir.1992).

We realize there may be cases in which a child services bureau may be justified in removing either a child or parent from the home, even where later investigation proves no abuse occurred. However, a state has no interest in protecting children from their parents unless it has some reasonable and articulable evidence giving rise to a reasonable suspicion that a child has been abused or is in imminent danger of abuse. See Lehr, 463 U.S. at 254-56, 103 S.Ct. at 2990 (declaring liberty interests in preserving the family unit "are sufficiently vital to merit constitutional protection in appropriate cases ") (emphasis added); accord Myers, 810 F.2d at 1462-63 (noting parental liberty interest in maintaining integrity of family unit is not a clearly established right where there is a "reasonable suspicion" abuse may have occurred).

Our focus here is whether the information available to the defendants at the time would have created an objectively reasonable suspicion of abuse justifying the degree of interference with the Crofts' rights as Chynna's parents. ⁴ Absent such reasonable grounds, governmental intrusions of this type are arbitrary abuses of power. See Gottlieb v. County of Orange, 84 F.3d 511, 517 (2d Cir.1996) (finding no due process violation for removing child where child welfare workers possess objectively reasonable basis for believing parental custody represents a threat to child's health or safety); Thomason v. SCAN Volunteer Services, Inc., 85 F.3d 1365, 1371 (8th Cir.1996) (holding child care worker entitled to qualified immunity in § 1983 action where he or she removes child on reasonable suspicion of child abuse); cf. 42 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 6324 and 23 Pa. Cons.Stat. § 6315 (providing for removing child from home only...