In re A.P.
| Decision Date | 18 April 2017 |
| Docket Number | No. COA16-1010,COA16-1010 |
| Court | North Carolina Court of Appeals |
| Parties | In the MATTER OF: A.P. |
Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services, Youth and Family Services, by Associate Attorney Christopher C. Peace, for petitioner-appellee.
Anné C. Wright, Boone, for respondent-appellant.
Guardian ad Litem Appellate Counsel Matthew D. Wunsche, Durham, for guardian ad litem.
Respondent-mother ("Respondent") appeals from an order adjudicating her minor daughter A.P. to be a neglected and dependent juvenile. The Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services ("MCDSS") did not have standing to file the juvenile petition. We vacate the trial court's order.
At the time of A.P.’s birth in August 2015, Respondent was living at the Church of God Children's Home (the "Home") in Cabarrus County, North Carolina. Shortly after A.P.’s birth, Respondent began to display irrational behavior. The Home's staff believed Respondent demonstrated a need for a higher level of care than they could provide her. On 22 September 2015, Respondent was taken to the Carolinas Medical Center-Northeast emergency room in Cabarrus County. She was subsequently involuntarily committed for mental health treatment in Mecklenburg County. Respondent agreed to a safety plan with the Cabarrus County Department of Social Services ("CCDSS") to allow her daughter to live at the Rowan County home of Ms. B., an employee of the Church of God Children's Home, while Respondent was undergoing in-patient mental health treatment.
Respondent subsequently identified her grandfather's home in Mecklenburg County as a place where she could live with A.P. upon her release from in-patient mental health treatment. In October 2015, CCDSS asked MCDSS to investigate the appropriateness of the grandfather's home for A.P. MCDSS found her grandfather's home to be appropriate. Respondent moved into the home with A.P. Respondent entered into an agreement with CCDSS that she would cooperate with MCDSS in developing and following an in-home family services plan, and CCDSS transferred the social services case to MCDSS.
On 25 November 2015, Respondent's sister discovered Respondent and A.P. were living away from her grandfather's home in a dilapidated house in Mecklenburg County. Respondent's sister took A.P. to Ms. B., and MCDSS subsequently approved the placement of A.P. with Ms. B. MCDSS investigated the conditions in which Respondent and A.P. had been living, and determined that Respondent needed intensive out-patient substance abuse treatment and other services. Respondent initially engaged in services, which were performed in Mecklenburg County. On 10 December 2015, Respondent notified MCDSS that she had moved to South Carolina.
At an 18 December 2015 meeting with MCDSS, Respondent agreed A.P. would continue to stay with Ms. B., while she lived with a family friend in South Carolina. Respondent returned to Mecklenburg County in January 2016. She was subsequently jailed in Mecklenburg County on unidentified criminal charges. From 18 to 20 February 2016, Respondent was again an inpatient at Davidson Mental Health Hospital in Mecklenburg County.
On 22 March 2016, Respondent informed MCDSS that she was residing in Cabarrus County. On 23 March 2016, Ms. B. informed MCDSS that she could no longer care for A.P. On 29 March, MCDSS obtained a nonsecure custody order from a Mecklenburg County magistrate, which did not list an address for either Respondent or A.P. Also on 29 March 2016, MCDSS retrieved the child from Ms. B. in Rowan County.
On 30 March 2017, MCDSS filed the nonsecure custody order and a juvenile petition alleging A.P. was a neglected and dependent juvenile. After a hearing on 17 May 2016, the trial court entered an adjudication and disposition order on 29 June 2016, in which it concluded that A.P. is a neglected and dependent juvenile. The court continued custody of A.P. with MCDSS, with placement in MCDSS's discretion. The court granted Respondent supervised visitation with A.P. and ordered Respondent to enter into an out-of-home family services agreement with MCDSS, and to comply with the terms of the agreement. Respondent filed timely notice of appeal from the court's order.
We first address the joint motion to dismiss Respondent's appeal and alternative motion to strike portions of Respondent's appellate brief filed by MCDSS and the guardian ad litem ("GAL"). MCDSS and the GAL argue that Respondent's appeal should be dismissed, because her brief contains (1) several footnotes which rely upon matters outside of the record on appeal and (2) a table of factual assertions without citation to the transcript or record on appeal. These alleged violations are not jurisdictional in nature and are not gross violations of our appellate rules to warrant dismissal. We deny the joint motion to dismiss Respondent's appeal. See Dogwood Dev. & Mmgt. Co. v. White Oak Transport Co. , 362 N.C. 191, 198-99, 657 S.E.2d 361, 365-66 (2008). We also deny the joint motion to strike, because the portions of Respondent's brief, which MCDSS and the GAL move to strike, are unnecessary to reach our decision in this appeal.
Respondent asserts MCDSS did not have standing to file the juvenile petition, and argues the trial court lacked jurisdiction to adjudicate A.P. as dependent and neglected. District courts have "exclusive jurisdiction over any case involving a juvenile who is alleged to be abused, neglected, or dependent." N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-200(a) (2015). However, "a trial court's general jurisdiction over the type of proceeding or over the parties does not confer jurisdiction over the specific action." In re McKinney , 158 N.C.App. 441, 447, 581 S.E.2d 793, 797 (2003) (citation omitted).
"[B]efore a court may act there must be some appropriate application invoking the judicial power of the court with respect to the matter in question." Id. at 444, 581 S.E.2d at 795 (citation and quotation marks omitted). To properly invoke the court's jurisdiction in a juvenile matter, the petitioner must have standing to file the juvenile petition. "Standing is jurisdictional in nature and ‘[c]onsequently, standing is a threshold issue that must be addressed, and found to exist, before the merits of [the] case are judicially resolved.’ " In re Miller , 162 N.C.App. 355, 357, 590 S.E.2d 864, 865 (2004) (quoting In re Will of Barnes , 157 N.C.App. 144, 155, 579 S.E.2d 585, 592 (2003) ); see also In re T.R.P. , 360 N.C. 588, 593, 636 S.E.2d 787, 792 (2006) ("A trial court's subject matter jurisdiction over all stages of a juvenile case is established when the action is initiated with the filing of a properly verified petition.").
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-401.1(a) requires that "[o]nly a county director of social services or the director's authorized representative may file a petition alleging that a juvenile is abused, neglected, or dependent."
As defined in the Juvenile Code, a "director" is "[t]he director of the county department of social services in the county in which the juvenile resides or is found, or the director's representative as authorized in G.S. 108A-14." N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-101(10) (2015). Thus, only the director of the county department of social services, or the director's representative, "in the county in which the juvenile resides or is found " has standing to file a petition alleging that a child is an abused, neglected, or dependent juvenile. No provision of the Juvenile Code defines the residence of a minor child. A minor child's legal residence for the purpose of receiving social services is determined as follows:
A minor has the legal residence of the parent or other relative with whom he resides. If the minor does not reside with a parent or relative and is not in a foster home, hospital, mental institution, nursing home, boarding home, educational institution, confinement facility, or similar institution or facility, he has the legal residence of the person with whom he resides . Any other minor has the legal residence of his mother, or if her residence is not known then the legal residence of his father; if his mother's or father's residence is not known, the minor is a legal resident of the county in which he is found .
N.C. Gen. Stat. § 153A-257(a)(3) (2015) (emphasis supplied).
In the case of In re S.D.A. , 170 N.C.App. 354, 356, 612 S.E.2d 362, 363 (2005), the mother "agreed to voluntarily place" her minor children with custodians in Rutherford County until the Rutherford County DSS deemed it appropriate to return the children to her care. Allegations of abuse by the custodians surfaced and the Rutherford County DSS asked Lincoln County DSS to investigate. Id ., 612 S.E.2d at 363-64.
The Lincoln County DSS was unable to substantiate any abuse; however, the Rutherford County DSS filed a juvenile petition alleging the children were abused and neglected by the mother for exposing the children to neglect by the custodians. Id. at 357, 612 S.E.2d at 364. The district court in Rutherford County adjudicated the children abused and neglected and removed them from the custodians’ care. Id. This Court vacated the district court's orders and held the trial court lacked subject matter jurisdiction. Rutherford County DSS failed to follow...
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