Opinion ID: 1988638
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Factual and legal developments since the trial court's decision.

Text: Because the District failed to prove its case under (B) or old (E), we conclude that the order removing the respondent children from the home of Mr. and Mrs. L. was in violation of then-existing law, and we must therefore vacate that order and remand the case to the trial court. Much time has passed, however, since Ch.H. was brought to the hospital and since the trial judge issued his decision. During that time, the facts have changed and the law has changed. We must therefore remand the case to the trial court in order to enable the judge to take into consideration these new developments; any new order cannot be based upon a stale record. The trial court ordered in 2002 that two of the respondents were to live with their birth father under the protective supervision of the court. The three younger children were committed to the custody of DHS and, presumably, they were placed in foster care. The record before this court does not reveal whether these arrangements are still in place and, if so, whether they have proved to be in the best interests of any or all of the children. We likewise have no information regarding whether there has been any contact between the respondents and Mr. and Mrs. L. and, if so, whether such contact has been sufficiently fruitful to make reunification a potentially appropriate disposition. As we have already noted, there has also been a significant change in the law since the trial judge announced his decision. In 2003, old (E) was supplanted by new (E). The new statute defines a neglected child as including one who is in imminent danger of abuse if another child living in the same household under the care of the same parent, guardian or custodian has been abused. D.C.Code § 16-2301(9)(A)(v) (Supp.2003). In other words, a respondent may now be a neglected child even if the child in the same household who has been abused is not his or her sibling. If new (E) had been in effect when this case was decided, then the decision of the trial judge would have been a permissible application of the then-controlling statute. Because the orders removing the children from Mr. and Mrs. L.'s home were not authorized either by old (E) or, as we have now held, by (B), the appropriate (though perhaps painful and difficult) disposition at that time, at least in the absence of unusual circumstances not known to us, was to order that the respondents be returned to the custody of Mr. and Mrs. L. Two years later, a reflexive reaction to the situation presently confronting this court would be to order now what should have been ordered then, i.e., that the children be returned to their mother and father/stepfather. For several reasons, however, we believe that such a disposition would be premature and would not properly take into account the best interests of the children as they may be affected by new facts and new law. Aside from the enactment of new (E), it is possible that events since the trial court's order may have made return of the respondents to the appellants inappropriate. The older children, for example, may have become so accustomed to living with their father that another change in custody would disrupt their lives and be contrary to their best interests. There may likewise have been developments in the lives of the three youngest children which would affect the appropriate disposition of their cases. Moreover, the circumstances of Mr. and Mrs. L. may not have remained static, especially in light of the drastic changes in their lives effected by the trial court's decision (and, indeed, by their own conduct). Any future orders must also take into account new (E), which applies, at the very least, to any disposition of the children effected after August 22, 2002, which was new (E)'s effective date. [8] If the respondents were to be placed, in 2004, with Mr. and Mrs. L., they, (1) might be in imminent danger of being abused; and (2) would live in the same household as Ch.H., who had been abused in that household. Thus, if the judge's 2002 finding that the children were in imminent danger holds true in 2004, then the respondents would potentially come under the literal terms of new (E). If the judge were to find imminent danger in 2004, then the respondents' return to Mr. and Mrs. L. would be improvident and futile for, upon their arrival at appellants' home, they would become neglected children within the meaning of new (E). The judge will therefore have to make new and updated findings of fact and order a disposition (with respect to each child) that is consistent with the law now in effect. Accordingly, we conclude that a remand is necessary in order to permit the judge to take into consideration the factual and legal developments that have occurred since his original decision. See In re C.T., 724 A.2d 590, 599-600 (D.C.1999) (remanding case with directions to explore intervening developments).