In re Adoption CCJ14746

• Decision Date: 13 September 2000
• Docket Number: No. 134,134
• Citation: 759 A.2d 755,360 Md. 634
• Parties: In re ADOPTION/GUARDIANSHIP NO. CCJ14746 in the Circuit Court for Washington County.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

759 A.2d 755

360 Md. 634

In re ADOPTION/GUARDIANSHIP NO. CCJ14746 in the Circuit Court for Washington County.

No. 134, Sept. Term, 1999.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

September 13, 2000.

Sherrie B. Glasser, Asst. Public Defender (Stephen E. Harris, Public Defender, on brief), Baltimore, for petitioner.

Carol Ann Smith, Asst. Atty. Gen. (J. Joseph Curran, Jr., Atty. Gen., on brief), Baltimore, for respondent.

Brief of the National Ass'n of Social Workers and the Maryland Chapter of the National Ass'n of Social Workers, the American Board of Examiners in Clinical Social Work, the Clinical Social Work Federation and its Member Maryland and Greater Washington Societies, the Family Therapy Practice Academy of the Clinical Social Work Federation, the Clinical Social Work Guild and the National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, Inc., and Clinical Social Work Guild No. 49 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC, as Amici Curiae filed on behalf of the Respondent.

Carolyn Jacobs, Blank, Rome, Comisky & McCauley, LLP, Baltimore, Carolyn I. Polowy, National Ass'n of Social Workers, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, the National Ass'n of Social Workers and the Maryland Chapter of the National Ass'n of Social Workers.

Peter M. Brody, Ropes & Gray, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, American Bd. of Examiners in Clinical Social Work.

Howard N. Feldman, Dickstein, Shapiro, Morin & Oshinsky, LLP, Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae, the Clinical Social Work Federation, the Maryland Society for Clinical Social Work, Inc., the Greater Washington Society for Clinical Social Work, Inc., the Family Therapy Practice Academy of the Clinical Social Work Federation, the Clinical Social Work Guild and The National Membership Committee on Psychoanalysis in Clinical Social Work, Inc., and Clinical Social Work Guild No. 49 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC.

Melvin S. Schwarzwald, Schwarzwald, Rock & McNair, Cleveland, OH, for Clinical Social Work Guild No. 49 of the Office and Professional Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, CLC. Argued before BELL, C.J., and ELDRIDGE, RODOWSKY, RAKER, WILNER, CATHELL and HARRELL, JJ.

RAKER, Judge.

The question presented in this case is whether the Circuit Court for Washington County erred in permitting a licensed clinical social worker to testify as an expert witness and to provide diagnostic expert testimony. The Court of Special Appeals affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court, holding that the trial court neither erred nor abused its discretion in receiving the opinions. We shall affirm.

Petitioner Shannon P. is the mother of a minor child, also named Shannon P.,¹ born August 20, 1993. Shannon first came to the attention of the Washington County Department of Social Services (WCDSS) when she was placed into foster care for three days in November, 1994. Intensive Family Services² were provided to the family until February, 1995. In July, 1995, Ms. P. asked WCDSS to provide assistance and WCDSS again provided time-limited intervention services. The case was closed in October, 1995, due to Ms. P.'s non-compliance.

In December, 1996, Ms. P. again requested help with parenting and the case was again closed for non-compliance. Around February, 1997, WCDSS received a physical abuse report concerning a cigarette burn on Shannon's forehead, and bruises on her head. This prompted WCDSS to open a Child Protective Services case. Following an investigation by WCDSS, Ms. P. agreed to a voluntary placement of Shannon with a family friend. During this placement, Ms. P. was incarcerated for one month for a violation of probation. In November, 1997, Ms. P. was admitted to a hospital following a drug overdose. At the same time, Child Protective Services determined that Shannon was neglected. On January 15, 1998, Ms. P. was convicted of the criminal offenses of theft and possession of controlled dangerous substances and sentenced to three years at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women. On the same day, Shannon was placed in foster care, where she has remained ever since. Since March, 1999, Shannon has lived in a prospective adoptive foster home. The foster parents wish to adopt Shannon, and WCDSS plans to consent to the adoption should it obtain guardianship with the right to consent.

After a hearing on March 19, 1998, Shannon was adjudicated a child in need of assistance by the Circuit Court for Washington County, pursuant to Maryland Code (1973, 1998 Repl.Vol., 1999 Supp.) § 3-812 of the Courts and Judicial Proceedings Article, and committed to the custody of WCDSS. On July 30, 1998, WCDSS filed in the Circuit Court for Washington County a petition for guardianship with the right to consent to adoption or long-term care short of adoption.³ The court entered an Order of Default against Shannon's father, Donald P., whose whereabouts were unknown, after he failed to respond within the prescribed time to a posted notice of the petition. Ms. P. appeared with counsel at the hearing on the petition on March 25, 1999, and contested the petition.

Dr. Carlton Munson testified for WCDSS at the March 25, 1999 hearing; his testimony is the subject of this appeal. Dr. Munson is a Licensed Certified Social Worker-Clinical, holding a license issued pursuant to Maryland Code (1981, 1994 Repl.Vol., 1999 Supp.) § 19-302(d)(2) of the Health Occupations Article (the Act).⁴ He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree, a Masters of Social Work and a Ph.D. in clinical social work from the University of Maryland School of Social Work. He has been certified by the American Board of Examiners in clinical social work as a Board Certified Diplomate, and has been employed as a professor and director of the doctoral program at the University of Maryland School of Social Work.

With reference to his experience, Dr. Munson testified that he had performed approximately four to five evaluations per month, two-thirds of these on children and one-third on adults. He further testified that over the previous ten years, he had performed three to four hundred evaluations and that he was familiar with the components and various tools to diagnose mental disorders. WCDSS offered him as an expert in clinical social work to testify to his evaluation of the mental disorders of Petitioner and Shannon. Petitioner objected on the ground that Dr. Munson was not trained as a psychiatrist or psychologist. The court overruled the objection and permitted Dr. Munson to testify as an expert in clinical social work.

Dr. Munson then testified that he met with Shannon for two hours on February 23, 1999, and after administering certain tests, he concluded that, based on the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed.1994) (hereinafter DSM-IV), Shannon suffered from "attention deficit hyper-activity disorder, combined type, moderate" and from "borderline intellectual functioning."

Dr. Munson testified that he had met with Ms. P. for about two hours, administered a series of tests to her, and reviewed her medical records. On the basis of the DSM-IV, he diagnosed her with schizophrenia, disorganized type and dissociative disorder. During the interview, Ms. P. told Dr. Munson that she was an abuser of alcohol and a user of PCP, crack cocaine and marijuana, that she had been physically abused and neglected as a child, that she had a history of mental illness and treatment, including five psychiatric hospitalizations, and that she had been a victim of domestic violence in her relationships with her estranged husband and other men. He testified that at the time he saw her, she was taking Doxepin, Prozac, Vistaril and Haldol, medications for depression and psychotic related disorders.

Dr. Munson testified that, based on his diagnosis, it was his opinion that Petitioner's ability to manage and parent Shannon was impaired because of her own chronic mental illness. He further opined that it would be between three and five years before she would be in a condition to support and care for a child and meanwhile, Shannon's safety and well-being would be at risk. Petitioner objected to Dr. Munson's testimony, on the ground that he was not qualified to diagnose and give expert opinions regarding Ms. P.'s and Shannon's conditions.

On March 25, 1999, the Circuit Court granted the petition and terminated parental rights. Petitioner noted a timely appeal to the Court of Special Appeals. In an unreported opinion, the intermediate appellate court affirmed the judgment of the Circuit Court, holding that the court did not err in admitting the testimony of the licensed certified social worker-clinical, Dr. Munson. We granted Ms. P.'s petition for writ of certiorari.

Each party before this Court has argued that a proper interpretation of the Act, which governs the practice of social work in Maryland, leads to opposite results. Petitioner argues that the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of Dr. Munson because the opinion he expressed was a medical diagnosis constituting the "practice of medicine" as that term is defined in § 14-101 of the Act, and as such, is prohibited by § 19-103(b). Section 19-103(b) states that "[t]his title may not be construed to authorize any person licensed as a social worker to engage in the practice of medicine." Alternatively, Petitioner argues that if Dr. Munson is qualified to render a diagnosis, he may do so only after a referral from a physician, and in any case, he may not give expert testimony of that diagnosis in court.

WCDSS argues that based on the plain language of § 19-101(f), a licensed certified social worker-clinical is permitted to diagnose mental and emotional disorders and to rely on that diagnosis in forming an opinion as to the likelihood of reunification of parent and child in a guardianship proceeding.

In order to resolve these issues, we must determine the...