L.G. v. R.G.

• Citation: 2023 UT App 132
• Docket Number: 20220920-CA
• Decision Date: 02 November 2023
• Parties: L.G., Appellant, v. R.G. AND R.G., Appellees.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Utah

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2023 UT App 132

L.G., Appellant,
v.
R.G. AND R.G., Appellees.

No. 20220920-CA

Court of Appeals of Utah

November 2, 2023

Seventh District Juvenile Court, Price Department The Honorable Craig Bunnell No. 1210014

Steve S. Christensen and Clinton Brimhall, Attorneys for Appellant

Colleen K. Coebergh, Attorney for Appellees

Martha Pierce, Guardian ad Litem Judge David N. Mortensen authored this Opinion, in which Judges Ryan M. Harris and Amy J. Oliver concurred.

OPINION

MORTENSEN, JUDGE

¶1 The maternal grandparents of two children filed a petition for guardianship, alleging neglect by both parents and abuse at the hands of the children's father. The guardianship was contested, and a trial was held. After trial, the juvenile court granted the petition, finding facts consistent with the allegations of the petition and determining that the guardianship was in the best interest of the children. Further, the juvenile court determined that the mother's parent-time, if any, would take place at the unfettered discretion of the grandparents. The mother

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appeals, claiming the juvenile court erred in determining neglect, erred in failing to order parent-time, and wrongfully denied a motion to change venue as to one of the children. For the most part, we affirm. However, the juvenile court's findings regarding the mother's parent-time rights are inadequate, and we therefore remand this matter for the entry of further findings and conclusions as necessary.

BACKGROUND

¶2 AG (Mother) and JH (Father) are the natural parents of GH and RH (the Children).^[1] In April 2022, Mother's parents, RG and RG (Grandparents), petitioned for guardianship and custody of the Children, alleging that such a placement was in the best interest of the Children due to Father's abuse and both parents' neglect. A few days later, Grandparents filed an ex parte motion for temporary custody of the Children, and the juvenile court granted the request.

¶3 At a pre-trial hearing, Mother asked for an expedited evidentiary hearing regarding temporary custody. The court declined that request and instead held a combined adjudication and disposition hearing over two trial days in July and August 2022.

¶4 After that hearing, the court issued an order setting forth findings of fact and conclusions of law regarding adjudication and disposition. Because Mother does not dispute the findings of fact, we recite the facts directly from the juvenile court's findings.^[2]

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¶5 The court took judicial notice of a 2019 order in which the same court terminated Mother's parental rights to an older child, who was adopted by Grandparents shortly thereafter. Mother stated she had "no idea" why her maternal rights for the older child were terminated, but the record shows that it was primarily due to Mother's neglect.

¶6 Mother moved in with Grandparents in Price, Utah, in July 2019 and lived with them through the first part of January 2022. From June through September 2021, Mother worked evenings (5:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.). She had surgery for "a minor thing" in September 2021. Mother was unemployed until she obtained fulltime employment in December 2021. At this job, she worked ten-hour shifts (10:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.) four days per week.

¶7 While living with Grandparents, Mother "relied on [Grandparents] almost exclusively and for nearly everything for [the Children] . . . . [Grandparents] were the primary caretakers for [the Children's] day-to-day physical, developmental, medical, and financial needs."

¶8 With regard to the Children's physical needs, Mother "did very little to make arrangements for [the Children], provide basic care, or assist with household duties," even when asked to do so. She did not provide "day-to-day food or meals" for the Children, nor did she help with potty training GH.

¶9 Regarding developmental needs, Grandparents provided for "the vast majority of [the Children's] indoor and outdoor activities, toys, and one-on-one parent-role interactions." Mother "did very little to actually parent [the Children] or care for their needs," and she did not assist with "mothering" the Children. When asked to care for the Children, other than watching the Children for about five hours some weekdays when Grandparents were both working, "Mother would often say she was too tired, too busy, be on her phone or smoking, or on her bed resting or lounging."

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¶10 Mother's sister (Sister) would often visit Grandparents' house (about two times each week when Grandparents were not there), and she observed Mother being "verbally abusive or terse with [the Children]," leaving them "unattended or unsupervised, not changing diapers as needed, or not caring for them." The court also found, based on Sister's testimony, that Mother would often "come to [Sister's] house (at times unannounced) without child-care supplies or clothes," asking for help with the Children because Mother was "tired, needed a break, going out with friends, or going to work (although, at times, she did not go to work, but went back to [Grandparents'] house to sleep or smoke)."

¶11 Financially, Mother sometimes shared her government food assistance card but relied on Grandparents for most of the Children's financial needs. She also relied on Grandparents to provide birthday or Christmas gifts for the Children. She did, however, reimburse Grandparents a few hundred dollars and paid for some daycare.

¶12 Regarding medical needs, Mother took the Children for immunizations, but she did not take them to other types of medical appointments or help Grandparents when the Children were sick with ear infections, colds, or other maladies.

¶13 In January 2022, Mother moved in with another relative (Step-Grandmother) in Highland, Utah, which was twenty minutes from her newly acquired job. Grandparents continued as GH's primary caretakers in Price, but RH moved to Step-Grandmother's house with Mother.

¶14 During this time-period, RH received daily and weekly care in four different cities separated by nearly a hundred miles and by four different caregivers besides Mother, namely Step-Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, Father's mother, and Grandparents. Essentially, Grandparents and Great-Grandmother would relieve Step-Grandmother when she was not available to watch RH. Sometimes Mother would be the one to

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take RH to Great-Grandmother's house. Step-Grandmother, Grandparents, the maternal great-grandmother (Great-Grandmother), or Mother transported RH, and sometimes GH, from house to house on weekends. Mother's mother handled most of the Children's care coordination, "unless Mother needed to preplan to accommodate her own work schedule." RH did not stay in "one consistent place or house" during this time-period; RH was at a "different house almost every day of the week, and each week was different than the last."

¶15 Watching Mother with the Children "scared" Step-Grandmother, and she never saw Mother being "a mother" to the Children. Mother was "negative verbally" to the Children and "put her own wants and needs before RH's needs." Mother would get upset when Step-Grandmother wanted to go out, making it necessary for Mother to watch RH.

¶16 Mother provided very little assistance to Step-Grandmother with household duties, except for washing her and RH's clothes, and "Mother's bedroom was always cluttered (with RH's clothes on the floor) and never cleaned." Mother put RH to bed half the time, but Step-Grandmother noted that the time was never consistent, as Mother sometimes would come home as late as 10:30 p.m. On some Friday nights, Mother did not come home at all until later that weekend.

¶17 While living with Step-Grandmother, Mother changed RH's diaper only about once per day; smoked cigarettes "all the time"; was "always on her phone"; did not give baby food or regular feeding; and did not read to, play with, sing to, or bathe RH.

¶18 In mid-March 2022, Mother moved into a rental house in Murray, Utah, with RH. Although Step-Grandmother no longer provided RH daily care after the move, Mother still used Grandparents, Great-Grandmother, and Father's mother to care for RH. Mother's work schedule changed to eight hours per day, five days per week (12:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. or 2:00 p.m. to 10:00

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p.m.). Grandparents primarily watched RH on weekends. GH continued to live with Grandparents.

¶19 On April 5, 2022, Mother picked up Father from prison, and he lived with Mother from then until at least July 2022, when Mother learned-on the first day of trial through Father's probation officer's testimony-that Father had used drugs just a week before. Before hearing this testimony, "Mother did not believe he would use drugs." Mother allowed Father to watch the Children unsupervised, and until trial, she had planned to continue living with him, despite knowing that Father was convicted of assaulting someone in prison two months prior to his release and despite complaining to Grandparents that Father was "controlling and threatening her, taking her phone and car, refusing to work, and taking advantage of her." Father's assault conviction "did not cause her any concern" about him being with her or the Children.^[3] The court found that Mother's reintroduction of Father into the Children's lives "was an emphatic demonstration to the Court of Mother's poor judgment and her continued inability (since having her parental rights terminated to an older child in 2019 and since [the Children] were born) to put [the Children's] needs and welfare before her own."

¶20 Mother made efforts to obtain a full-time job and to perform well at her job to provide for her and the Children.^[4] But the court concluded that Mother "did not progress over the last three years as was necessary and appropriate for her to meet the daily needs" of the Children. Instead, Grandparents, Step-

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Grandmother, Great-Grandmother, and others provided "the crucial...