In re D.L.W., 368 N.C. 835

Background

In March 2013 Alamance County DSS removed three children from mother Marisha Wade and filed dependency/neglect petitions alleging the family at times lived in a van heated by kerosene, failed to meet basic needs, and that significant domestic violence placed the children at risk.
The juvenile court adjudicated the children neglected in May 2013 based on stipulations and ordered services and requirements (housing, budgeting, mental-health assessment, domestic-violence counseling, drug screens, visitation, etc.).
Over the next year the parents showed inconsistent compliance: unstable housing (multiple evictions), intermittent employment, continued domestic-violence incidents, failure to follow through on budgeting and treatment, and other behavioral/legal problems; children remained in out-of-home placement.
DSS moved to terminate parental rights; after a multi-day hearing the trial court terminated both parents’ rights under N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7B-1111(a)(1) (neglect) and (a)(2) (failure to make reasonable progress).
The Court of Appeals reversed as to the mother, holding the trial-court findings did not tie mother’s conduct to neglect of the children and that some case-plan requirements (e.g., treating social phobia, budgeting) were beyond the court’s authority to impose as conditions tied to removal.
The North Carolina Supreme Court granted discretionary review and reversed the Court of Appeals, reinstating termination of mother’s parental rights, concluding findings supported both neglect and failure-to-progress grounds and that the contested case-plan requirements were appropriately linked to conditions that led to removal.

Issues

Issue	Petitioner (DSS/GAL) Argument	Respondent (Wade) Argument	Held
Whether trial-court findings supported terminating mother’s rights for neglect under § 7B-1111(a)(1)	Domestic violence and living conditions created an environment injurious to children and continued patterns showed likelihood of repetition	Findings focused on mother’s relations with DSS/father, not on her care of children; insufficient to show neglect at termination	Court: Findings (domestic violence, child intervention, unsafe living) supported neglect and likelihood of repetition; termination affirmed
Whether termination was proper under § 7B-1111(a)(2) for willfully leaving children out of home >12 months without reasonable progress	Mother failed to correct conditions that led to removal (unstable housing, failure to budget despite income, continued DV, failure to complete treatments), so reasonable progress not shown	Mother’s problems were poverty-related or unrelated (e.g., social phobia); some case-plan items exceeded court’s authority	Court: Many case-plan requirements (budgeting, housing, DV counseling) directly addressed removal causes; findings show failure to make reasonable progress—termination affirmed

Key Cases Cited

In re Young, 346 N.C. 244, 485 S.E.2d 612 (N.C. 1997) (burden at adjudication: clear, cogent, and convincing evidence and two-step termination procedure)
In re Ballard, 311 N.C. 708, 319 S.E.2d 227 (N.C. 1984) (neglect at time of hearing or past neglect plus likelihood of future neglect required for termination)
In re Montgomery, 311 N.C. 101, 316 S.E.2d 246 (N.C. 1984) (appellate review of dispositional best-interest determination)
In re L.M.T., 367 N.C. 165, 752 S.E.2d 453 (N.C. 2013) (appellate standard for abuse of discretion in dispositional stage)
Knutton v. Cofield, 273 N.C. 355, 160 S.E.2d 29 (N.C. 1968) (trial judge determines witness credibility and weight of testimony)