194 Conn. 252 | Conn. | 1984
In a decision dated December 20,1982, following a hearing held on December 15,1982, the trial court granted the state’s petition to terminate the defendant’s parental rights with respect to her son pur
On a previous occasion the trial court terminated the defendant’s parental rights under subsections (2) and (4) of § 17-43a (a). On appeal to this court we reversed
The record reveals the following facts. The defendant, A, gave birth to her son J on February 7, 1974. At that time, she was a fifteen-year-old delinquent child living at Long Lane School in the custody of the commissioner of children and youth services. On March 6, 1974, the Juvenile Court, second district, found that J was “uncared for” because his mother was unable to provide a home for him. Consequently, J was committed to the care and custody of the commissioner of children and youth services.
On August 8,1974, J was placed in the P foster home in New Milford where he has since remained. A has resided primarily in Waterbury, approximately thirty-five miles from New Milford, near other members of her family. A has visited her son over the years, but these visits were limited in length and number. She has tried to regain custody of J repeatedly, but each of her five motions to review commitment, brought between March 25,1975, and the 1982 termination proceeding, was denied after hearings and professional evaluations of J and his mother.
A has had three more children since J was born. At the time of the termination hearing, one of her daughters had been removed by court order while the other two children remained in A’s care. The trial court found that A had not been able to maintain a clean, warm, nutritious home for her children, as indicated by several utility shut-offs.
J was found to have adjusted positively to the P foster home and was doing well in school. Testimony of child psychologists, adopted by the court in its factual findings, indicated that removing J from the P home
On the basis of its findings of fact, the trial court concluded that A lacked “the emotional stability, the maturity, the understanding or ability to be able to be a parent to J.” The court found that by clear and convincing evidence the state had proven the allegations of its petition to terminate A’s parental rights in J. Consequently, the court terminated A’s parental rights pursuant to General Statutes § 17-43a on the following grounds: “(1) The parent has abandoned the child in the sense that she has failed to maintain a reasonable degree of interest, concern or responsibility as to the child’s welfare. (2) Mother has failed to achieve any such degree of personal rehabilitation that should reasonably encourage the belief that at some future date she could assume a responsible position in her child’s life. (3) There is no on-going parent/child relationship . . . that ordinarily develops as a result of a parent having met on a day to day basis the physical, emotional, moral and educational needs of the child, and to allow further time for the establishment of such parent/child relationship would be detrimental to the best interests] of the child.”
The defendant challenges the constitutionality of § 17-43a (a) (1) and (4)
As to subsection (1), she asserts that termination of parental rights for abandonment is only proper where a parent has voluntarily deserted her child, and not in cases where the state has assumed custody against the parent’s wishes. With regard to subsection (4), authorizing termination upon a showing of no ongoing parent-child relationship, the defendant argues that the state has prevented or substantially hindered the development of such a relationship between her and J, and has failed in its duty to preserve her parental ties to J.
The defendant has not attacked the sufficiency of the evidence supporting the trial court’s findings of abandonment and no ongoing parent-child relationship.
The defendant has not alleged that there was insufficient evidence to find the ground of failure to rehabilitate under § 17-43a (a) (2). Nor has she attacked the constitutional validity of that provision as applied to
There is no error.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.
“[General Statutes] Sec. 17-43a. TERMINATION OF PARENTAL RIGHTS of child committed to commissioner, (a) In respect to any child committed to the commissioner of children and youth services . . . the commissioner . . . may petition the court for the termination of parental rights with reference to such child .... The superior court upon hearing and notice . . . may grant such petition if it finds upon clear and convincing evidence, that over an extended period of time, which, except as hereinafter provided in this subsection, shall not be less than one year: (1) The parents have abandoned the child in the sense that they have failed to maintain a reasonable degree of interest, concern or responsibility as to the child’s welfare; or (2) the parents have failed to achieve any such degree of personal rehabilitation as would reasonably encourage the belief that at some future date they could assume a responsible position in their child’s life; or . . . (4) there is no ongoing parent-child relationship, which means the relationship that ordinarily develops as a result of a parent having met on a day to day basis the physical, emotional, moral and educational needs of the child and to allow further time for the establishment or reestablishment of such parent-child relationship would be detrimental to the best interest of the child . . . .”
The statute alternatively provides for termination of parental rights if the parents consent or if the parents, because of continuing physical or mental deficiency, will be unable to provide the child with necessary care, guidance and control. Neither of these alternate grounds has been alleged against the defendant, and therefore neither is discussed in this case.
The father of the defendant’s child is dead.
The defendant raises a second ground for appeal based on an evidentiary error. She contends that testimony concerning her intelligence quotient, admitted at the hearing, was not competent evidence and should have been excluded because its prejudicial potential outweighed its probative value. At trial, the defendant neither objected to nor moved to strike this testimony, and thus failed to preserve her claim of error for appeal. Therefore, we do not consider this question as it is not properly before us. Practice Book § 3063.
See footnote 1, supra. For the sake of convenience, we will refer to subsection (1) of General Statutes § 17-43a (a) as “abandonment,” subsection (2) as “failure to rehabilitate,” and subsection (4) as “no ongoing parent-child relationship.”
The defendant is “of Spanish descent and background and experiences difficulty with the English language.” She required an interpreter at the termination hearing. In response to questions posed by the court, Mr. P, J’s foster parent, testified that neither he nor his wife spoke Spanish, and that J lacked any conversational skills in his mother’s native tongue. The defendant’s equal protection claim does not include the argument that the statute is discriminatory in its application to a suspect class based on ethnic origin in violation of the equal protection clause.
We have never decided whether it is constitutionally permissible to terminate an individual’s parental rights when the state is largely or solely responsible for the existence of the grounds upon which the termination is based. We reserve that question for another day.
This court has declared that “[t]he public policy of this state is ‘to strengthen the family and to make the home safe for children by enhancing the parental capacity for good child care; [and] to provide a temporary or permanent nurturing and safe environment for children when necessary. ’ . . . (Emphasis added.)” In re Juvenile Appeal (Anonymous), 177 Conn. 648, 660, 420 A.2d 875 (1979).
We do not mean to imply by our decision today that there was in fact sufficient evidence to support the termination of the defendant’s parental rights on grounds of either abandonment or no ongoing parent-child relationship.
“The termination of parental rights is defined as ‘the complete severance by court order of the legal relationship, with all its rights and responsibilities, between the child and his parent . . . .’ General Statutes § 45-61b (g). It is ‘a most serious and sensitive judicial action.’ Anonymous v. Norton, 168 Conn. 421, 430, 362 A.2d 532, cert. denied, 423 U.S. 935, 96 S. Ct. 294, 46 L. Ed. 2d 268 (1975). ‘Although that ultimate interference by the state in the parent-child relationship may be required under certain circumstances, the natural rights of parents in their children “undeniably warrants deference and, absent a powerful countervailing interest, protection.” Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 651, 92 S. Ct. 1208, 31 L. Ed. 2d 551 [1972]; see In re Appeal of Kindis, 162 Conn. 239, 240, 294 A.2d 316 [1972]; Cinque v. Boyd, [99 Conn. 70, 82, 121 A. 678 (1923)].’ Anonymous v. Norton, supra, 425.” In re Juvenile Appeal (Anonymous), 177 Conn. 648, 671, 420 A.2d 875 (1979). This court has “[i]nsist[ed] upon strict compliance with the statutory criteria [of § 17-43a] before termination of parental rights and subsequent adoption proceedings can occur . . . .” Id., 672. In assessing the constitutionality of another statutory provision authorizing state intrusion into the area of parental rights, we recognized the fundamental nature of these rights and applied the strictest level of judicial scrutiny. In re Juvenile Appeal (83-CD), 189 Conn. 276, 284-85, 455 A.2d 1313 (1983).