Court Opinion

ID: 9894814
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-11-03 05:09:11.668893+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:10:46.826599
License: Public Domain

If this opinion indicates that it is “FOR PUBLICATION,” it is subject to
                 revision until final publication in the Michigan Appeals Reports.

                          STATE OF MICHIGAN

                           COURT OF APPEALS

                                                                    UNPUBLISHED
In re D V LANGE, Minor.                                             November 2, 2023

                                                                    No. 362365
                                                                    Wayne Circuit Court
                                                                    Family Division
                                                                    LC No. 2021-000658-NA

Before: REDFORD, P.J., and O’BRIEN and FEENEY, JJ.

PER CURIAM.

        In this child protective proceeding, petitioner, the Department of Health and Human
Services (“DHHS”), appeals by right the circuit court’s order dismissing for lack of jurisdiction
the petition to take temporary custody of the minor child, DVL. Because a preponderance of the
evidence supports a finding of jurisdiction under MCL 712A.2(b)(1) and (2), we reverse and
remand for further proceedings.

                     I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

         In 2013, through a single parent adoption, respondent adopted five-year-old DVL. Because
he had been exposed to trauma and abuse while in the care of his family of origin, DVL treated
with both a therapist and a psychiatrist. DVL suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, reactive
attachment disorder, oppositional defiance disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Over the years, DVL’s behaviors escalated and his mental health deteriorated. DVL has a history
of attempting to set fires in the family home and attempting to injure family pets. Due to DVL’s
destructive and sexualized behavior, respondent installed door alarms on his bedroom door and
never left him alone with his two siblings. Between the ages of 10 and 13, DVL was hospitalized
six or seven times to receive psychiatric care at Hubbard Oaks and Havenwyck for threatening to
kill his parents and siblings. The hospitalizations were typically two weeks in duration and were
followed by outpatient treatment. As respondent testified at trial, DVL returned home after each
hospitalization:

       Yes [out-patient treatment was provided] and each time he was provided with day
       treatment programs to follow-up with the in-patient treatment and he would
       complete that and things would be ok for a while and then it would go right back
       where it was.

                                               -1-
DVL also has a history of sexually inappropriate behaviors at home and while in placement. In
November 2020, respondent enrolled then 13-year-old DVL into a year-long out-of-state
residential treatment program.1 Six months in, the program terminated DVL for sexually
inappropriate behavior with other residents. DVL returned to respondent’s home in April 2021.

        After his return to Michigan, DVL’s behaviors worsened. In early June 2021, when he
attempted to start a fire in the home and threatened suicide, respondent took DVL to St. John
Hospital. Respondent sought the hospital admission because she knew DVL first needed to be
medically cleared before he could enter into an inpatient treatment program. On June 10, 2021,
Children’s Protective Services (“CPS”) received a referral after respondent informed hospital staff
that because of safety concerns, she was unwilling to manage or care for DVL’s mental health
needs. Thereafter, CPS and the hospital emergency room social worker unsuccessfully searched
for a suitable pediatric inpatient psychiatric program for DVL. While at the hospital in the holding
area and in the hospital’s general population waiting to be transferred, DVL was not receiving
treatment; he was only being held until a suitable pediatric psychiatric facility could be found.
According to respondent, who was the only witness to testify at the adjudication, the pediatric
psychiatric hospitals would not take DVL due to the severity of his issues and “they couldn’t
guarantee the safety of the other patients.”

       On July 8, 2021, DVL was not cleared for discharge home. Amazingly, on July 9, 2021,
DVL’s medical providers at St. John Hospital cleared him for discharge with the recommendation
that DVL receive intensive outpatient mental health services. Upon learning of the impending
discharge, respondent refused to pick up DVL from the hospital and indicated that she would not
allow him to return to her home because it was unsafe for all of them; respondent testified that “to
hear that there was no help was . . . heartbreaking.” During a July 2021 team decision meeting,
CPS offered respondent assistance in securing outpatient mental health services for DVL but she
refused based upon DVL’s numerous prior short-term inpatient stays, subsequent outpatient
treatment. and ongoing mental health issues that made him a significant threat to himself and others

       On July 16, 2021, DHHS filed a petition alleging that respondent’s abandonment of DVL
allowed the court to assume jurisdiction over DVL, as well as his two siblings.2 At the preliminary
hearing, a referee entered an interim placement order that permitted DHHS to place DVL in a
residential home. The two-day adjudication trial commenced in May 2022, and concluded in June
2022. At the conclusion of the trial, the court found that a statutory ground to exercise jurisdiction
over DVL did not exist. Consequently, it dismissed the petition. This appeal followed.

                                   II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

        We review a trial court’s jurisdiction decision for clear error in light of the court’s findings
of fact. In re BZ, 264 Mich App 286, 295; 690 NW2d 505 (2004). A finding is clearly erroneous

1
 Respondent testified that the year-long residential program DVL attended in 2020 cost $2000 per
month and the parents covered the cost as it was not covered by insurance.
2
 At the preliminary hearing, respondent’s other two children were dismissed from the petition
and, throughout the lower court proceedings, they remained in the care of their other legal parent.

                                                  -2-
if, although there is evidence to support it, this Court is left with a definite and firm conviction that
a mistake has been made. In re Long, 326 Mich App 455, 460; 927 NW2d 724(2018) (citation
omitted). To the extent that the jurisdictional issue presents a question of statutory interpretation,
we review that issue de novo. In re LaFrance, 306 Mich App 713, 723; 858 NW2d 143 (2014).

                                           III. ANALYSIS

        DHHS argues on appeal that the trial court clearly erred when it refused to exercise
jurisdiction over DVL under MCL 712A.2(b)(1). We agree, and further find that the trial court
also erred when it failed to assume jurisdiction over the minor child under MCL 712A.2(b)(2).

        The purpose of child protective proceedings is the protection of the child. In re Brock, 442
Mich 101, 107; 499 NW2d 752 (1993). “Child protective proceedings are generally divided into
two phases: the adjudicative and the dispositional.” Id. at 108. The adjudicative phase determines
whether the trial court may exercise jurisdiction over the child. Id. To establish jurisdiction, the
petitioner must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a statutory ground exists under MCL
712A.2(b). In re SLH, 277 Mich App 662, 669; 747 NW2d 547 (2008). A “preponderance of the
evidence” means evidence of a proposition that when weighed against the evidence opposed to the
proposition “has more convincing force and the greater probability of truth.” People v Cross, 281
Mich App 737, 740; 760 NW2d 314 (2008).

       In this case, DHHS requested that the court assume jurisdiction over DVL under MCL
712A.2(b)(1) and (2), which provide that a court has jurisdiction over a child in the following
circumstances:

                (1) Whose parent or other person legally responsible for the care and
        maintenance of the juvenile, when able to do so, neglects or refuses to provide
        proper or necessary support, education, medical, surgical, or other care necessary
        for his or her health or morals, who is subject to a substantial risk of harm to his or
        her mental well-being, who is abandoned by his or her parents, guardian, or other
        custodian, or who is without proper custody or guardianship. As used in this sub-
        subdivision:

                (A) “Education” means learning based on an organized educational
        program that is appropriate, given the age, intelligence, ability, and psychological
        limitations of a juvenile, in the subject areas of reading, spelling, mathematics,
        science, history, civics, writing, and English grammar.

               (B) “Neglect” means that term as defined in section 2 of the child abuse and
        neglect prevention act, 1982 PA 250, MCL 722.602.

                (C) “Without proper custody or guardianship” does not mean a parent has
        placed the juvenile with another person who is legally responsible for the care and
        maintenance of the juvenile and who is able to and does provide the juvenile with
        proper care and maintenance.

              (2) Whose home or environment, by reason of neglect, cruelty,
        drunkenness, criminality, or depravity on the part of a parent, guardian, nonparent

                                                  -3-
       adult, or other custodian, is an unfit place for the juvenile to live in. As used in this
       sub-subdivision, “neglect” means that term as defined in section 2 of the child abuse
       and neglect prevention act, 1982 PA 250, MCL 722.602.

We find that the trial court erred when it declined to exercise jurisdiction over DVL under both
MCL 712A.2(b)(1) and (2). A preponderance of the evidence established that respondent refused
to provide proper or necessary mental health care to her son and that her admitted inability to care
for DVL’s significant mental health needs, despite repeated efforts to obtain effective treatment
for him, rendered her home statutorily unfit.

        This Court’s recent opinion in In re Hockett, 339 Mich App 250; 981 NW2d 534 (2021),
guides our resolution of the jurisdictional issue in this case. The facts in In re Hockett are
substantially similar to those in the present case. In In re Hockett, minor child NRH had a history
of mental illness that included brief yet frequent hospitalizations, suicidal ideation, and threats of
harm to others in the home. Id. at 252-253. The respondent-mother similarly refused to take her
mentally ill child home from the hospital until he received the help she believed he needed. Id.
Notably, as in the present case, the Department of Health and Human Services relied on the
hospital’s determination that NRH should be discharged. Id. at 253. The trial court found that
NRH came within the court’s jurisdiction under MCL 712A.2(b)(1). In re Hockett, 339 Mich
App at 255. Specifically, the trial court ruled that the respondent failed to provide her child proper
care and custody when she refused to pick up NRH from the hospital. Id. This Court affirmed the
order of the lower court, but determined that jurisdiction was proper under MCL 712A.2(b)(2), not
MCL 712A.2(b)(1). In re Hockett, 339 Mich App at 256. This Court’s analysis of the provisions
of MCL 712A.2(b) is instructive:

       It is unfortunate that our statute uses the word “unfit” to describe situations such as
       this. We note that “the underlying purpose of the statutory scheme is to protect
       children from an unfit homelife.” In re Sterling, 162 Mich App 328, 339; 412
       NW2d 284 (1987). Unfitness connotes active wrongdoing, which we do not see in
       this case. The statute, however, implies some understanding of the existence of
       parents who do not have the resources to provide for their children in the phrase
       “when able to do so.” This mother was unable to manage the complex mental
       health needs of her child. The referee correctly determined that respondent
       declined to retrieve her child upon discharge. The referee also correctly noted that
       respondent had the physical capacity to retrieve her minor child and did not do so.
       Our concern is that this mother, who took desperate action to get care for her child,
       is now labeled “unfit” and listed on a registry for persons who acted to harm
       children when she, in fact, was seeking to protect her child. The scant and costly
       resources available for mental healthcare for children likely places other parents
       in the same situation as this respondent. We can only look to our policymakers for
       a resolution to this conundrum. However, “culpability is not a prerequisite” for
       court intervention under MCL 712A.2(b)(2). In re Jacobs, 433 Mich 24, 41; 444
       NW2d 789 (1989). Respondent’s admitted inability, not her unwillingness, to care
       for NRH’s special needs with the level of assistance she was receiving, along with

                                                 -4-
       her homelessness[3], rendered NRH’s environment a place of danger for the
       seriously ill child and, thus, statutorily unfit. In this case, we are not left with a
       definite and firm conviction that the trial court was mistaken in finding statutory
       grounds to exercise jurisdiction over NRH. [In re Hockett, 339 Mich App at 255-
       256; emphasis added.]

        Applying the rationale employed by this Court in In re Hockett, we conclude that the trial
court erred when it declined to exercise jurisdiction over DVL under MCL 712A.2(b)(2). In this
case, despite her efforts, respondent admitted that she could not care for DVL’s special and
significant mental health needs. She testified that DVL and her other two children would be at
risk of harm if DVL were in the home. Testimony established that respondent refused DHHS’s
assistance in obtaining outpatient treatment, including in-home services. It is clear from the record
that respondent had attempted years of outpatient therapy while DVL was living with her yet his
behaviors continued to escalate. Even her attempts to have him placed in a year-long residential
program that was intended to provide intensive mental health treatment ended prematurely because
the residential program could not tolerate DVL’s behavior. Yet the hospital and DHHS determined
that DVL was safe to go home where he had threatened to harm his family, the home, his pets and
himself.4 A preponderance of the evidence supported a finding that respondent’s actions rendered
the home environment a place of danger for DVL, as well as respondent’s other two children and,
thus, statutorily unfit. See, In re Hockett, 339 Mich App at 256. Considering the record, we are
left with a definite and firm conviction that the trial court erred when it failed to exercise
jurisdiction over DVL under MCL 712A.2(b)(2).

        Although the Court in In re Hockett found jurisdiction under MCL 712A.2(b)(2), it was
reluctant to do so under MCL 712A.2(b)(1). A preponderance of the evidence in this case supports
the assumption of jurisdiction under MCL 712A.2(b)(1), as well. In re Hockett did not involve a
parent that refused to cooperate in obtaining mental health services for her child. The respondent
mother in Hockett, like DVL’s respondent mother, actually sought mental health services for her
child. In re Hockett, 339 Mich App at 255-256. It is this salient fact that makes the Court’s opinion
in In re Hockett applicable to the present matter. Here, evidence presented at adjudication
established that respondent refused to secure outpatient treatment for DVL—not because she
refused to cooperate in obtaining mental health services for her son but because she had sought
those services for years, DVL’s behavior was escalating, and it was still unsafe for him to return
home. During a July 13, 2021 team decision meeting, CPS offered respondent assistance in

3
 Unlike the mother in Hockett, respondent had housing for DVL but testified that her home was
not safe for DVL, her other children, or herself when DVL resided there.
4
  How in the course of one day DVL could go from being nondischargeable to dischargeable from
the hospital without receiving treatment casts doubt on whether the hospital chose to wash its
hands of this troubled youth rather than keep him in a holding pattern while DHHS tried but failed
to find a suitable placement for him. This circumstance likely occurs throughout the state of
Michigan as beds in pediatric residential treatment facilities are few and far between.

                                                -5-
securing outpatient mental health services for DVL after his discharge into her care.5 DHHS also
looked into a Community Mental Health referral that would have allowed DVL and respondent to
receive services in the home.6 Respondent, however, declined the offered services because her
son required psychiatric care and “it wasn’t safe for him to be in my care.”

       The trial court recognized the quandary that respondent faced:

       That DVL has a very severe detachment disorder. It causes him to act out in very
       dangerous ways and that the mother has made numerous efforts to try to have
       DVL’s condition addressed. . . . It doesn’t matter what other circumstances she has
       to deal with, including the fact that she has two other children who would be at risk
       if she brought DVL home who is, as far as I can tell, that would be like bringing a
       ticking time bomb into your home. . . . It’s her job to pick him up at the hospital
       even if it means that her other children are going to be abused because she’s a single
       parent, and she has three children in one home. I don’t know how anybody is
       supposed to manage that situation. That is beyond my comprehension. No one has
       explained that to me.

The trial court admitted it had never seen a case like this and the judge did not “see how I can find
that she’s been neglectful or abusive in terms of her actions to date and this is a very prickly
problem.” The court opined that a dependency petition could possibly be filed but it did not find
respondent to be abusive or neglectful and denied to authorize the petition. Notably, the trial court
as well as the Assistant Attorney General, the lawyer guardian ad litem and respondent’s attorney
all recognized that if the petition were not authorized, DVL needed to be picked up from his
placement at the time (Hanley House); if respondent did not pick DVL up, DHHS would need to
file another petition and the process would begin again. Respondent acknowledged that this was
a “no-win situation” and she was facing a “Sophie’s choice” because she loved DVL but they
“exhausted everything the state has to offer, everything, and nothing has made a difference.”

        Based on this record, we are left with a definite and firm conviction that the trial court was
mistaken in finding no statutory grounds to exercise jurisdiction over DVL. A preponderance of
the evidence supports a finding that, despite recommendations made by an examining adult (not
pediatric) psychiatrist, respondent, although able to do so, refused to pick him up from the hospital
and failed to secure intensive outpatient treatment for her son. This was sufficient testimony to
establish by a preponderance of the evidence that respondent refused to provide proper or

5
  Indeed, DHHS discussed with respondent the option of using an adoption subsidy to obtain a
residential treatment program for DVL. How DHHS or respondent would pay for such a program
was irrelevant as the record is devoid of evidence that there were open residential programs in
Michigan but no funds to place DVL in a qualified residential treatment program. This also ignores
the fact that respondent had already invested in an out-of-state residential treatment program and
that program terminated DVL due to his unacceptable behavior.
6
 Again, there is no evidence in the record to establish that community mental health programs
coming to the home weekly were sufficient to address DVL’s extensive mental health challenges.

                                                 -6-
necessary care for DVL, who was subject to a substantial risk of harm to his mental well-being.
MCL 712A.2(b)(1). In re Hockett, described respondent as well as NRH’s parent when it found:

       This mother was unable to manage the complex mental health needs of her child.
       The [court] correctly determined that respondent declined to retrieve her child upon
       discharge. The [court] also correctly noted that respondent had the physical
       capacity to retrieve her minor child and did not do so. . . she, in fact, was seeking
       to protect her child. In re Hockett, 339 Mich App at 255.

Accordingly, we are left with a definite and firm conviction that a mistake has been made, and find
that the trial court clearly erred when it failed to assume jurisdiction of DVL under MCL
712A.2(b)(1). In re Long, 326 Mich App 455, 460; 927 NW2d 724 (2018).7

        Because the circuit court should have exercised jurisdiction over the minor child, we
reverse the trial court’s July 19, 2022 order finding no jurisdiction and dismissing the petition. We
remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion. We do not retain jurisdiction.

                                                              /s/ Colleen A. O’Brien
                                                              /s/ Kathleen A. Feeney

7
 We agree with the court in In re Hockett, 339 Mich App at 256, that “[w]e can only look to our
policymakers for a resolution to this conundrum,” i.e., providing services for the growing number
of youth struggling with significant mental health issues in light of the “scant and costly resources
available;” unless the Legislature addresses this crisis, more parent will be placed in the same
unfortunate situation as the respondent here and in Hockett.

                                                -7-