Opinion ID: 1405279
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Sufficiency of the Best Interest Standard

Text: Although the majority recognizes that the severing of a meaningful relationship a child enjoys with a nonparent may be harmful to the child, [4] its disposition of this case undermines the opportunity to sustain such relationships. This need not be the case. The faults the majority sees in RCW 26.10.160(3) and former RCW 26.09.240 are more imagined than real. Both RCW 26.10.160(3) and former 26.09.240 provide that the trial court may order visitation rights for a nonparent when visitation may serve the best interest of the child[,] but the majority finds this standard insufficient, and faults the statutes for lacking enumerated factors such as a substantial relationship between petitioner and child or consideration of any past abuse of the child by the petitioner. Majority op. at 30-31. However, such factors/considerations are clearly subsumed under the best interests of the child determination [5] which is unique in each case. See Washington State Coalition for the Homeless v. Department of Soc. & Health Servs., 133 Wash.2d 894, 931-32, 949 P.2d 1291 (1997) (Ultimately what is in the best interests of a particular child depends on `a highly factspecific inquiry that cannot be reduced to a mathematical equation.'). [6] We have long held that trial courts have broad discretion to determine the best interests of a child in cases touching upon a child's welfare, and such determinations are given great deference. In the context of a dependency proceeding, we stated in Aschauer: While the criteria for establishing the best interests of the child are not capable of specification, each case being largely dependent upon its own facts and circumstances, the proof necessary in order to deprive a person of his or her parental rights must be clear, cogent and convincing. If there is substantial evidence which the lower court could reasonably have found to be clear, cogent and convincing, an appellate court should not disturb the trial court's findings. Deference paid to the trial judge's advantage in having the witnesses before him is particularly important in deprivation proceedings, when it is borne in mind that continuity in the parent-child relationship, whether the parent figure be the natural parent or not, is increasingly recognized as a significant factor in a child's normal development. ... Courts are always reluctant to deprive parents of rights with respect to their children, and it is particularly sad when the parent cares for the child and desires to be a good parent, as appears to be the case here. However, it is the court's duty to see that those rights yield, when to accord them dominance would be to ignore the needs of the child. In re Aschauer's Welfare, 93 Wash.2d 689, 695, 611 P.2d 1245 (1980) (citations omitted). The best interests of the child remain the court's paramount concern. This inquiry is the touchstone by which all other rights are tested and concerns addressed in various contexts dealing with children. See, e.g., Washington State Coalition for the Homeless v. Department of Soc. & Health Servs., 133 Wash.2d 894, 923, 949 P.2d 1291 (1997) (As in all matters dealing with the welfare of children, the court must additionally act in the best interests of the child.); Aschauer, 93 Wash.2d at 695, 611 P.2d 1245 (This court has repeatedly said that the goal of a dependency hearing is to determine the welfare of the child and his best interests.); In re Sego, 82 Wash.2d 736, 738, 513 P.2d 831 (1973) (a child's welfare is the court's primary consideration ... when the rights of parents and the welfare of their children are in conflict, the welfare of the minor children must prevail); In re Marriage of Littlefield, 133 Wash.2d 39, 51-52, 940 P.2d 1362 (1997) (noting in the absence of parental cooperation in a postseparation action, the trial court is given broad discretion to develop and order a parenting plan according to the guidelines set forth in RCW 26.09.187(3) and based upon the best interests of the children at the time of trial); State ex rel. Campbell v. Cook, 86 Wash.App. 761, 771, 938 P.2d 345, review denied, 133 Wash.2d 1019, 948 P.2d 387 (1997) (noting the best interests of the child are paramount in paternity proceedings, the Court of Appeals upheld trial court's denial of the putative father's attempt to reopen/challenge paternity determination made 13 years prior). While our case law supports use of the best interest standard in matters relating to the welfare of children, Judge Ellington's dissent in Troxel deftly explains why this standard is particularly appropriate here: The statute itself contains the Legislature's standard for both threshold and standing, in its requirement that the visitation serve the best interests of the child. Many considerations could explain a legislative decision to leave RCW 26.10.160(3) unamended. Grandparent visitation issues come most readily to mind. For if a custody action must be pending before a grandparent may petition, then a grandparent whose child is deadas is the Troxels' sonand who can thus never expect a RCW 26.09 petition opportunity (because no petition will ever be pending under that chapter) also has no recourse under RCW 26.10 unless willing to allege the remaining parent is unfithardly a prelude to amicable relations among family members. Is there never then to be a circumstance where a child indeed has a fit parent, but also has strong ties to grandparents, warm and beneficial ties which the child's best interests call for protecting? The limitations which public policy may place on such petitions are fertile grounds for debate ... But these are matters for the Legislature, and for now, the current statute expresses one policy approach: any person may petition at any time, so long as the child's best interests are served. It cannot be said that this approach is absurd, or even out of harmony with RCW 26.09.240. In re Visitation of Troxel, 87 Wash.App. 131, 142-43, 940 P.2d 698 (1997) (Ellington, J., dissenting) (italics and footnotes omitted). Indeed, the broad language of RCW 26.10.160(3) and former RCW 26.09.240 furthers the best interests of the child by tacitly recognizing the growth of nontraditional families and the important role members of such families may play in the child's life. The best interest standard lacks nothing in its brevity and retains the necessary flexibility required by a trial court in addressing the infinite circumstances and possibilities which surround child welfare determinations such as the nonparent visitation at issue in these cases. We should reiterate the best interests of the child remain the touchstone by which all other rights are tested and concerns addressed in various contexts dealing with children. [7] In the consolidated cases before us, the trial courts in Troxel and Smith entered specific findings that visitation with the petitioners would be in the respective children's best interest. See Troxel Findings of Fact 2.3E, Clerk's Papers at 128; and Smith Findings of Fact 2.17, Clerk's Papers at 6; Conclusions of Law 3.3, Clerk's Papers at 9. The majority ignores these findings.