Court Opinion

ID: 9715040
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 05:52:54.6479+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:23:30.939406
License: Public Domain

SCHUMACHER, ROBERT H., Judge
(dissenting).
I respectfully dissent. As the trial court stated in finding of fact 13.0, mother “has been unwilling to meet [L.S.V.’s] basic needs and her actions say (loud and clear) that she does not want her son returned to her home.” The record readily supports the trial court’s conclusion that termination of parental rights is in the best interests of L.S.V. The majority nonetheless faults the trial court for not specifically detailing why mother’s continued compliance with the court-ordered case plan is necessary to correct the conditions that led to the initial removal. Such a critique only serves to further delay the final resolution of this case.
MinmStat. § 260C.201, subd. 11 (2000), requires that the trial court hold a permanency hearing within 12 months of out-of-home placement for children over the age of eight. The dispositions available to the trial court are (1) reunification; (2) transfer of legal custody to a relative; (3) long-term foster care; or (4) termination of parental rights. Minn.Stat. § 260C.201, subd. 11(e). In this case, L.S.V. has been in out-of-home placement since April 1999, over two and a half years. As counsel for the guardian ad litem stated in his appellate brief: “Every day spent in reunification past the 12-month timeline is another day lost for finding a permanent home for this child.” The focus in this case should be on L.S.V.’s need for permanency, not on the trial court’s findings.