Opinion ID: 2056781
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Post-Judgment Motions

Text: [¶ 20] On November 10, 2008, the cousin couple moved to intervene in the case, for interested-person status, and for a kinship placement of the child with them. See 22 M.R.S. § 4062(4) (2008). [3] On November 26, 2008, they filed a motion for relief from judgment. On December 1, 2008, the cousin couple, with support of the mother and father and the mother's affidavit, filed a verified motion for a temporary restraining order to stay all matters relating to the child's permanency placement and adoption pending a hearing and disposition of their other motions. [¶ 21] On December 2, 2008, the mother and father filed a joint motion for relief from judgment pursuant to M.R. Civ. P. 60(b). In a refrain that the trial court could have recognized as common in domestic violence cases, the father and mother asserted that the mother's testimony at the termination hearing that he had abused her was fabricated as a result of her mental illness and that she had since recanted that testimony. [4] The father ignored his earlier admission that he had physically abused the mother in front of the child. The mother asserted that she had suffered from mental illness that rendered her incompetent to waive a summary preliminary hearing in March 2006 and to testify at the termination hearing, and, in a separate argument, that the failure to assign her a guardian given her mental condition was obvious error and violated her due process rights. [¶ 22] On December 9, 2008, the unrelated couple filed a motion to intervene and for interested-person status. On the record, it appears that this couple attempted to become involved only upon being contacted by the parents after we affirmed the judgment terminating parental rights. This couple had not been presented by the parents as a potential placement for the child during the three years that the child protective proceeding was pending. The unrelated couple asserted that they had filed a petition to adopt the child in Waldo County Probate Court, apparently while the foster parents' adoption petition was pending. [¶ 23] On February 4, 2009, the Department filed a motion to dismiss the child protection proceedings based on the child's having been adopted on January 30, 2009. On the same day, the court ( Field, J. ) held a hearing concerning the pending motions at which the GAL, the State, and counsel for the father, mother, the cousin couple, and the unrelated couple were present. Given the extraordinary relief requested by the appellants, the court ordered the appellants to file affidavits that... can be described as the best offer of proof that you would have if the case were to go to trial. [¶ 24] The parties then filed affidavits as offers of proof, outlining their positions in greater detail. The father filed a supplemental memo in support of his Rule 60(b) motion, arguing that the mother's testimony against him at the termination hearing was fabricated as a result of her mental incapacity, she has since recanted, and the father should be relieved from the termination judgment pursuant to Rule 60(b)(3) and (6). [¶ 25] The mother filed a supplemental motion, referencing Rule 60(b)(1), (2), (3), (4), (5), and (6), along with supporting affidavits from an attorney and a psychiatrist. Supported by the attorney's affidavit, the mother asserted for the first time that the termination judgment and purported adoption was not in the child's best interest by potentially precluding him from inheriting hundreds of thousands of dollars as the mother's issue under her family's trusts in New York. The mother also detailed her history of in-patient and out-patient treatment for mental health and physical conditions between 2002 and 2009, and argued that the Department failed to consider a kinship placement for the child. The psychiatrist's affidavit opined that the mother, who had been a physician, was unable to help herself or appreciate complex matters like legal proceedings between 2005 and 2008.