Court Opinion

ID: 9653943
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 17:59:40.181954+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:20.204659
License: Public Domain

NYE, Chief Justice,
concurring.
I concur in the result but for a different reason. This case involves the lack of representation of two minor children whose interests were adverse to the child welfare agency and the adoptive parents. Approximately 8 to 10 years ago, Co Le-Thi Ham-maker, a Vietnamese national, and her husband, Donald Hammaker, a United States serviceman, came to the United States from Viet Nam. Deanne and Daniel, twins, were *862born to the Hammakers in the United States.
Co Le-Thi and her husband had many marital difficulties primarily because Donald was unable to secure and maintain employment and because Co Le-Thi was unable to communicate with him and others. Co Le-Thi noticed a big change in Donald’s behavior after he arrived in the United States. She was completely dependent upon him for food, clothing and shelter. She did not speak English and had difficulty comprehending the language. Four and one-half years ago, Donald picked up all eight of Co Le-Thi’s children in the state of Ohio and abandoned them at a Catholic children’s center in Corpus Christi. Co Le-Thi had a great deal of difficulty in understanding what took place with her children then and thereafter. She was never provided an interpreter to communicate with her in her native tongue to explain American culture, society or court procedures. Donald’s erratic behavior caused the local child welfare agency to take charge of the children. Co Le-Thi became dependent upon the Nueces County Child Welfare and Texas Department of Public Welfare for subsistence.
Temporary orders were issued in August of 1973 in Cause No. 119,012 by the presiding judge of the Domestic Relations Court of Nueces County. The children were placed temporarily in the custody of the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit. The Hon. Don Chrestman, attorney, was appointed guardian ad litem to represent the interests of the children. In 1974, Judge Thomas, the Domestic Relations Judge, appointed the Hon. John Barrow, another attorney, guardian ad litem and dismissed Mr. Chrestman from his duties. No other guardian or attorney has ever been appointed to represent the children’s interests, and no order has been entered releasing or discharging Mr. Barrow from his duties as guardian.
In the hearing in August of 1974, the Child Welfare Unit presented testimony showing Co Le-Thi’s financial inability to care for her children, her complete dependency upon her husband for everything, and his complete unfitness as a father to raise the children and his unfitness as a husband for Co Le-Thi. The Domestic Relations Judge entered an order terminating the rights of both parents and placed restrictions upon the placement of the children in order to allow Co Le-Thi an opportunity to provide a home for the children and to work with the Child Welfare Unit in this regard. The continuing type order specifically provided that the Child Welfare Unit should not place the children outside the City of Corpus Christi or for adoption for a period of six months after August 28, 1974. This proviso, according to the Domestic Relations Court, was for the purpose of continuing to work with the mother of said children in efforts to provide a home for all or some of her children. The order then provided that subsequent to the date of six months following August 28, 1974, all restrictions on the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit as managing conservator would terminate. There was no follow-up hearing to determine whether Co Le-Thi was providing the home family relationship suggested by the trial judge. No appeal was taken from this order.
The twins, Deanne and Daniel, were placed in the home of the appellees. Co Le-Thi visited the children and baked Vietnamese dishes for them. Later she was discouraged from visiting with them by the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit. The appellees wrote to her expressing their hope that she could be reunited with all of her children.
In September of 1975, in the same cause number (119,012), the Domestic Relations Court restored to Co Le-Thi her parental right to three of her older children. John Barrow as attorney ad litem participated, signed and approved the order on behalf of the children. John Barrow was not discharged from his duties.
In October of 1976, Co Le-Thi was again reassured by the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit that Deanne and Daniel’s custody was still an open matter and that in time all of her children would be returned to her. *863By this time, six of her children had been returned to her care, although only three had been restored to her officially by the Domestic Relations Court.
In March of 1977, the 105th District Court, a different court and judge but still in the same cause number (119,012), restored three more of Co Le-Thi’s children to her. It was at this hearing in 1977, that an employee of the Child Welfare Unit informed Co Le-Thi that the appellees had adopted Deanne and Daniel in July the previous year. The adoption was handled in the same cause as all of the other proceedings and bore the same cause number (119,012), as the original and all subsequent proceedings. However, the record shows that neither Co Le-Thi nor the guardian, John Barrow, had been notified of this purported adoption. This Bill of Review resulted. The trial court held that John Barrow had no standing and was not entitled to notice of the adoption hearing.
The guardian, John Barrow, asserts here on appeal that Deanne and Daniel were not represented by a guardian, an attorney, or by a next friend, and that he as their guardian and attorney would present a meritorious defense to the proposed adoption had he been notified by the Child Welfare Unit or the trial court that such was going to take place.
There is a fundamental right emanating from our Constitution that protects the integrity of the family unit. Sims v. State Dept. of Public Welfare, etc., 438 P.Supp. 1179 (1977). The integrity of this particular family unit began with the filing of Cause No. 119,012 in 1973. The Domestic Relations Court recognized the adverse interests existing as to the children when it originally appointed a guardian ad litem. The trial court reaffirmed this interest in the minor children when it discharged the original guardian and appointed John Barrow the succeeding guardian. Although I agree generally that the term “ad litem” limits the appointment to the term of the litigation of the suit for which the guardian is appointed, this particular appointment did not necessarily end at the conclusion of the trial court’s first order divesting Co Le-Thi from her parental authority over the children. The Texas Courts have uniformly treated family matters involving minor children as a continuing type of litigation. Although this interlocutory type order was final to the extent that an appeal could have been had, the trial court considered it as continuing by its subsequent orders as to the other children, by its subsequent recognition of John Barrow as guardian thereafter at other hearings, and by treating all of such hearings, including the adoption, under the same continuing cause number (119,-012). There is no question but that the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit treated all of this as a continuous case.
The integrity of the family unit has always found protection in the due process clause and the equal protection clause of the 14th and 9th amendments to the United States Constitution. Here the competing interest for these children was of paramount importance. The Nueces County Child Welfare Unit, as managing conservator, had an adverse interest to that of the natural mother; to that of the adoptive parents; and to that of the adoptive children. The right of these children and their mother as individuals to be heard at the adoption hearing would have been of little avail, when they could neither comprehend the proceedings nor did they have counsel to comprehend for them. A child’s interest is generally distinct from the interest of the child welfare agencies, the natural parents, or the adoptive parents.
Although I agree that this case must be reversed and the cause remanded, it must be pointed out that when different courts and different judges enter different orders concerning different children, but all from the same family unit in the same continuous cause numbered case, the integrity of such orders must be subject to examination and protection by our courts especially when no attorney was present representing such children or the natural mother.
Although the Domestic Relations Court purported to divest the natural mother of her parental rights on the one hand, it *864suggested to her and the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit on the other hand that Co Le-Thi could, and maybe should, have all of her parental rights restored to her. As this was taking place, the adoption of two of her children was concluded without notice. It is easy under the facts of this case to see the injustice afforded this stranger in our country.
Since all the proceedings were handled in cause numbered 119,012, it was a simple matter for the trial judge to see that a guardian had been appointed originally; and that subsequent hearings (with the guardian present) had taken place concerning these children, even after the reputed end of the litigation had taken place (where Co Le-Thi’s parental rights had been taken away). In obedience to the original order suggesting to the Child Welfare Unit that it should work with the natural mother, it is obvious to me that such unit’s interest in divesting its managerial conservatorship over the twin children to the adoptive parents was adverse to that of these minor children and to the natural mother as a matter of law.
The Supreme Court of the United States has recognized many times the importance of the child to its parent and the protection that is available in such cases. For instance the Supreme Court said in Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S.Ct. 1208, 31 L.Ed.2d 551 (1972):
“The Court has frequently emphasized the importance of the family. The rights to conceive and to raise one’s children have been deemed ‘essential,’ Meyer v. Nebraska, 262 U.S. 390, 399, 43 S.Ct. 625, 626, 67 L.Ed.2d 1042 (1923), ‘basic civil rights of man,’ Skinner v. Oklahoma, 316 U.S. 535, 541, 62 S.Ct. 1110, 1113,86 L.Ed. 1655 (1942) and ‘rights far more precious . than property rights,’ May v. Anderson, 345 U.S. 528, 533, 73 S.Ct. 840, 843, 97 L.Ed. 1221 (1953). ‘It is cardinal with us that the custody, care and nurture of the child reside first in the parents, whose primary function and freedom include preparation for obligations the state can neither supply nor hinder.’ Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158, 166, 64 S.Ct. 438, 442, 88 L.Ed. 645 (1944). The integrity of the family unit has found protection in the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Meyer v. Nebraska, supra, 262 U.S. at 399, 43 S.Ct. at 626, the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Skinner v. Oklahoma, supra, 316 U.S., at 541, 62 S.Ct., at 1113, and the Ninth Amendment, Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479, 496, 85 S.Ct. 1678, 14 L.Ed.2d 510 (1965) (Goldberg, J., concurring).”
In this case, John Barrow the guardian, should have participated or have been discharged and another attorney appointed in his place. Whether it was collusion, neglect, or mistake, the Nueces County Child Welfare Unit did not lay the children’s care properly before the court, or the trial court would not have gone forward in the adoption hearing without the presence of John Barrow the guardian.