G.V. v. Dep't of Pub. Welfare

• Decision Date: 29 April 2014
• Citation: 91 A.3d 667
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court
• Parties: G.V., Appellee v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE, Appellant. Lancaster County Children and Youth Services, Intervenor.

91 A.3d 667

G.V., Appellee

v. DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC WELFARE, Appellant.Lancaster County Children and Youth Services, Intervenor.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

Argued Oct. 15, 2013.

Decided April 29, 2014.

Anne L. Cooper, Esq., Devine Law Offices, LLC, Lancaster, Jacquelyn Elizabeth Pfursich, Esq., for Lancaster County Children and Youth Social Service Agency.

Mary Patricia Patterson, Esq., Allen C. Warshaw, Esq., Department of Public

Welfare, Kenneth J. Serafin, Esq., for Department of Public Welfare.

Michael Eugene Angelotti, Esq., for City of Philadelphia Department of Human Services.

Frank P. Cervone, Esq., Support Center for Child Advocates, Thomas E. Zemaitis, Esq., Pepper Hamilton LLP, Philadelphia, for Support Center for Child Advocates, et al.

Jason Kutulakis, Esq., Abom & Kutulakis, L.L.P., Carlisle, for Pennsylvania Children and Youth Solicitors Association.

Janice L. Martino Longer, Esq., Lancaster, for G.V.

Janet Fran Ginzberg, Esq., Community Legal Services, for Community Legal Services & the ACLU of PA.

Richard Scott McEwen, Esq., PA State Education Association (PSEA), for Pennsylvania State Education Association.

BEFORE: CASTILLE, C.J., SAYLOR, EAKIN, BAER, TODD, McCAFFERY, STEVENS, JJ.

OPINION

Justice McCAFFERY.

The Department of Public Welfare (“DPW”) appeals from the Commonwealth Court's vacatur and remand of a denial of expungement of an indicated report of child abuse from the statewide ChildLine Registry (“Registry”). DPW challenges the determination that clear and convincing evidence, as opposed to substantial evidence, is required to maintain an indicated report of child abuse. Upon review, we reverse and remand.

In September 2009, Lancaster County Children and Youth Services (“CYS”) received a referral that G.V. had been sexually abusing C.S., his 16-year-old great niece, of whom G.V. and his wife, T.V., had custody. CYS conducted an investigation, and on November 5, 2009, filed an “indicated” report against G.V. after finding that “substantial evidence” existed that G.V. had sexually abused C.S. A summary of the indicated report was also filed with the Registry, as required under the Child Protective Services Law, 23 Pa.C.S. §§ 6301–6386 (“CPS Law”). Shortly thereafter, G.V. was informed that he was listed as a perpetrator in the Registry, and he asked that DPW expunge the report on the grounds that it was inaccurate and/or maintained in a manner inconsistent with the CPS Law. Expungement was denied, and G.V. appealed pursuant to Section 6341(c) of the CPS Law. A hearing was held before an administrative law judge at which several witnesses testified, including G.V., C.S., T.V., an adult daughter of G.V. and T.V., a long-standing friend and neighbor of G.V., and the CYS social worker. Thereafter, the administrative law judge issued an adjudication and recommendation concluding that the indicated report was supported by substantial evidence and that the summary of the indicated report was being maintained in a manner consistent with both the CPS Law and DPW regulations. The administrative law judge found that C.S.'s testimony was credible, and that G.V.'s testimony was incredible due to internal inconsistencies, as well as to other evidence showing that G.V. regularly hid his activities from family members. Upon G.V.'s appeal, the Bureau of Hearings and Appeals adopted the administrative law judge's recommendation and denied expungement. After his motion for reconsideration was denied, G.V. appealed to the Commonwealth Court.

The Commonwealth Court vacated and remanded in a 5–2 opinion authored by Judge Anne E. Covey. G.V. v. Dep't of Pub. Welfare, 52 A.3d 434 (Pa.Cmwlth.2012) (en banc). It agreed that the indicatedreport of sexual abuse was supported by substantial evidence as required under the CPS Law, but observed that there is no legislative mandate or directive indicating what standard of proof is required at an expungement hearing in order to maintain a summary of the indicated report in the Registry. Following the lead of this Court in R. v. Dep't of Pub. Welfare, 535 Pa. 440, 636 A.2d 142 (1994), the Commonwealth Court looked to the seminal administrative law decision of Mathews v. Eldridge, 424 U.S. 319, 96 S.Ct. 893, 47 L.Ed.2d 18 (1976), for guidance in assessing a due process claim for violation of an individual's right to protect his or her reputation.¹ It applied the Mathews factors, and based thereon concluded that the adverse effects on an alleged child abuse perpetrator's reputation and employment opportunities required that evidence presented at an expungement hearing be clear and convincing in order to maintain the summary of the report in the Registry. The court noted that reputation is a constitutionally protected interest in Pennsylvania,² and because the Registry information may be disclosed upon inquiry to employers, school districts, and boy scout, girl scout and other organizations, there is a real threat that persons not specifically authorized to receive the information will be made aware of the allegations, thus posing a risk of unconstitutional deprivation of an individual's privacy interest. While the majority recognized the government's interest, expressly detailed in Section 6302(a) of the CPS Law, in providing effective child protective services in order to prevent abused children from suffering further injury and impairment, it nonetheless concluded:

Accordingly, as we are statutorily constrained to protect the child from injury or impairment, we hold that substantial evidence must support a determination of whether child abuse has occurred, but there must be clear and convincing evidence of child abuse to maintain statutorily[ ]designated information from an indicated report on the ChildLine Registry.

G.V., supra at 446 (emphasis omitted).^3,4

Judge Bonnie Brigance Leadbetter dissented, joined by Judge Robert E. Simpson, opining that even under a clear and convincing standard, the result of this case would be denial of the request for expungement, based on the administrative law judge's definitive and unequivocal credibility determination that the abuse had occurred.

Judge Simpson also dissented, and was joined by Judge Leadbetter, because he discerned no constitutional flaw in applying the “substantial evidence” standard used to place an indicated child abuse report in the Registry, as the evidentiary standard for maintaining an indicated child abuse report in the Registry. He stated that, just as in R. v. Dep't of Pub. Welfare, 535 Pa. 440, 636 A.2d 142 (1994), any potential adverse effect on G.V.'s reputation occasioned by the maintenance of the indicated report in the Registry is limited because of the numerous “legislatively imposed controls” in the CPS Law that limit release of information to only certain individuals. G.V., supra at 449 (Simpson, J., dissenting) (citation omitted). He also observed that G.V. does not claim to want to work or volunteer with children, and there is no suggestion of a specific financial or associational deprivation which might be created by the maintenance of the summary of the indicated report in the Registry. He opined further that maintaining a record of indicated child abuse based on a substantial evidence standard is rationally related to the government's interest in “complete reporting of suspected child abuse.” Id. at 450, citing 23 Pa.C.S. § 6302(b) (setting forth the legislature's purpose in enacting the Child Protective Services Law).

The issue accepted for review is the following:

Whether Commonwealth Court erred in requiring a “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard of proof in child abuse expunction cases under the Child Protective Services Law (CPSL), 23 Pa.C.S. §§ 6301–6386, where the legislature had established substantial evidence as the required standard of proof.

G.V. v. Dep't of Pub. Welfare, ––– Pa. ––––, 66 A.3d 252 (2013).⁵

This Court has described the broad purpose of the Child Protective Services Law as follows:

The need to prevent child abuse and to protect abused children from further injury is critical. The legislature sought to encourage greater reporting of suspected child abuse in order to prevent further abuse and to provide rehabilitative services for abused children and their families. The Act also establishes a statewide central registry for the maintenance of indicated and founded reports of child abuse, as identifying perpetrators of abuse serves to further protect children. Recognizing that identifying someone as a child abuser can profoundly impact that person's reputation, the release of such information is advocated only in certain limited venues. [R]eports of indicated and founded abuse identifying the perpetrator can be released to law enforcement, social work agencies, employers in child care services and other related venues[ ].

P.R. v. Dept. of Pub. Welfare, 569 Pa. 123, 801 A.2d 478, 483 (2002) (citations omitted).

A report of child abuse is characterized as an “indicated report” if an investigation by the county agency or DPW determines that “substantial evidence” of the alleged abuse exists based on available medical evidence, the child protective service investigation, or an admission of the facts of abuse by the perpetrator. 23 Pa.C.S. § 6303. “Substantial evidence” is evidence that outweighs inconsistent evidence and which a reasonable person would accept as adequate to support a conclusion. Id. The CPS Law requires DPW to maintain a statewide registry consisting of summaries of indicated reports of child abuse. 23 Pa.C.S. § 6331. The burden is on the appropriate county agency to show that the indicated report of abuse is accurate and being maintained in a manner consistent with the CPS Law. See23 Pa.C.S. §§ 6303, 6341(c). After a summary of an indicated report is entered in the Registry, the perpetrator is notified that his or her ability to obtain employment in a child-care facility or program or a public or private school may be adversely...