Court Opinion

ID: 9523048
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-07 02:35:29.807175+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:04:31.574499
License: Public Domain

GARRARD, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
While I concur with the majority result based upon the evidence and reasonable inferences most favorable to the trial court’s finding, I am concerned about the implication that the statutory year for failure to meaningfully communicate could be found to have occurred several years before the filing of the petition.
I agree that incarceration is not per se outcome determinative. It may certainly alter the mode or means for significant communication or, in some instances, supply justifiable cause.
I find the principal value of the pre-incar-ceration evidence as to Herman’s communication habits to be that it is circumstantial evidence capable of providing a reasonable inference of his continued state of mind concerning communication with his child. That inference when coupled with the evidence favorable to the judgment of his extremely meager attempt to communicate after he was imprisoned permits the ultimate conclusion that without justifiable cause he failed to communicate significantly throughout the entire period preceding the filing of the adoption petition.