Marshall Cnty. Dep't of Human Res. v. M.B., 2131026 and 2140165.
| Decision Date | 27 February 2015 |
| Docket Number | 2131026 and 2140165. |
| Citation | 176 So.3d 217 |
| Parties | MARSHALL COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN RESOURCES v. M.B. et al. Ex parte Marshall County Department of Human Resources. (In re L.B., a minor child, et al.). |
| Court | Alabama Court of Civil Appeals |
Sharon E. Ficquette, chief legal counsel, and Karen P. Phillips, asst. atty. gen., Department of Human Resources, for appellant/petitioner Marshall County Department of Human Resources.
Submitted on appellant's brief and mandamus petition only.
This court's opinion of January 9, 2015, is withdrawn, and the following is substituted therefor.
These appellate proceedings, initiated by the Marshall County Department of Human Resources (“the Marshall County DHR”) and involving four children of the same parents, concern the appropriateness of a juvenile court's termination of parental rights as to those children while simultaneously declining to award permanent legal custody of the children to any party.
In May 2013, the Marshall County DHR filed petitions in the Marshall Juvenile Court to terminate the parental rights of M.B. (“the mother”) and B.J.B., Jr. (“the father”), as to four children: T.B., S.B., L.B., and B.J.B. IV (hereinafter referred to collectively as “the children”), who had previously been placed in the temporary legal custody of the Marshall County DHR; those actions were assigned case numbers with “.02” designators, indicating that the children had been the subject of earlier proceedings in the juvenile court. In December 2013, the paternal grandfather of the children, B.J.B., Sr. (“the paternal grandfather”), a resident of Michigan, was permitted to intervene in the termination actions involving the children to assert a claim for their custody.
On the date of the scheduled trial on the parties' claims, neither the mother nor the father appeared, and the juvenile court heard testimony from a worker for the Marshall County DHR and arguments from counsel for the Marshall County DHR and the paternal grandfather. At trial, the juvenile court indicated that it intended to enter judgments addressing only the termination-of-parental-rights issues in the four cases, but it invited any aggrieved party to seek appellate review regarding the necessity of an award of permanent custody. In accord with that previous indication, the judgments entered by the juvenile court in the four .02 cases involving the children noted the parents' failure to appear and terminated their parental rights, but the judgments ordered the cases closed without making any award of permanent custody. The Marshall County DHR filed a postjudgment motion in each of the .02 cases to alter, amend, or vacate the judgments, asserting that the juvenile court's judgments were not in compliance with Ala.Code 1975, § 12–15–320, and were contrary to this court's decision in Ex parte Alabama Department of Human Resources,154 So.3d 1060 (Ala.Civ.App.2014)(“Ex parte DHR”), and it appealed from the judgments (appeal no. 2131026) after postjudgment relief was denied. No other party has appealed from the judgments in the .02 cases, and the correctness of the judgments as to the underlying question of termination is not here presented for review.
After that appeal was taken, the paternal grandfather prepared a motion to be filed in the .02 cases in which he sought “further disposition” of the children, including an award to him of custody. The motion was determined by the juvenile court to have initiated new civil actions involving the children, each of which was denominated with “.03” case designators, and the juvenile court set the matters for a hearing on the merits over the objection of the Marshall County DHR, which insisted that disposition of its appeal was required before a contest regarding the custody of the children could be heard. The Marshall County DHR then timely sought review by petitioning this court for a writ of mandamus (case no. 2140165) requiring the juvenile court to vacate its decision to allow the paternal grandfather's custody requests to proceed notwithstanding the pendency of the appeal. No answers or materials, other than the mandamus petition, have been filed in case no. 2140165 by any party.
In appeal no. 2131026, the Marshall County DHR reiterates its argument that the juvenile court could not properly terminate the parental rights of the mother and the father in the .02 cases without making an award of permanent custody. Based upon our review of Ex parte DHR,we agree with the Marshall County DHR that the judgments under review are due to be reversed. In Ex parte DHR,the juvenile court in that case, after initially rendering a judgment terminating parental rights as to a particular child on the petition of the Madison County Department of Human Resources (“the Madison County DHR”) and awarding permanent custody of that child to the Alabama Department of Human Resources (“the Alabama DHR”), determined that it had intended only to award temporary custody of the child and purported to correct that judgment to award only temporary custody. We agreed with the Alabama DHR that the juvenile court erred to reversal in failing to award permanent custody to the Alabama DHR or to the Madison County DHR:
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