Opinion ID: 2169564
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Failure to Comply with Case Plan Objectives

Text: The respondent contends that the trial justice erred when, in his bench decision, he found that respondent had failed to comply with any of the objectives of her nine case plans. On appeal, the respondent argues that she did, in fact, comply with two of the case plans, which then resulted in two separate, if brief, reunifications with her daughter. We discussed the case plan objectives and the temporary reunifications more thoroughly above. Two possibilities exist for the trial justice's wording in his bench decision: first, while the respondent did comply with two different case plans, her compliance was only temporary, resulting in the repeated removal of Mariah from her care; second, the trial justice simply misspoke. Regardless of which possibility explains the trial justice's bench finding, the fact remains that the one sentence to which the respondent objects did not affect the decision to terminate the respondent's parental rights. The trial justice elaborated fully in his bench decision the reasons for finding the respondent unfit, the respondent's history with regard to the nine case plans, and DCYF's reunification attempts. If error at all, that one sentence is harmless.