Court Opinion

ID: 9575617
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:15:26.433736+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:48:48.319677
License: Public Domain

*257KENNARD, J., Dissenting.
The majority holds that the family relationship between a parent and a minor child can be irrevocably severed using a “preponderance of the evidence” test—the minimum possible standard of proof—in proceedings brought in juvenile court to terminate parental rights. I disagree. In my view, the basic requirements of procedural due process do not allow the state to terminate parental rights in such a proceeding without clear and convincing evidence of a substantial risk of detriment to the child.
I
Sarah D. was born in August 1985. In April 1989, the juvenile court temporarily removed Sarah from the custody and control of her mother, Cynthia D., after a finding that Sarah had suffered, or there was a substantial risk she would suffer, “serious physical harm ... as the result of [Cynthia’s] failure or inability ... to adequately supervise or protect” Sarah. (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 300, subd. (b), 361, subd. (b).)1
Thereafter, at a hearing held in May 1991, to reevaluate the status of the temporary removal of Sarah from her mother’s custody, the juvenile court found by a “preponderance of the evidence” that it would create a substantial risk of detriment to Sarah to return her to her mother, Cynthia. (§ 366.22.) The court then set the matter for a “selection and implementation” hearing pursuant to section 366.26 to devise a permanent placement plan for Sarah. Among the choices available to the court at the “selection and implementation” hearing would be whether Sarah should be freed for adoption by terminating Cynthia’s parental rights with respect to Sarah.
Cynthia immediately challenged the juvenile court’s ruling setting the case for a “selection and implementation” hearing, by filing a petition for a writ of mandate or prohibition in the Court of Appeal. Specifically, Cynthia asked the Court of Appeal to prohibit the trial court from terminating her parental rights with respect to her minor child, Sarah. Cynthia argued that the juvenile court’s use of the lowest evidentiary standard—proof by a preponderance of the evidence—in making its finding of detriment at the 18-month status review hearing conflicted with decisions by this court and by the United States Supreme Court requiring that the dispositive finding necessary to terminate parental rights be made under a heightened “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard. (In re Angelia P. (1981) 28 Cal.3d 908 [171 Cal.Rptr. 637, 623 P.2d 198] [parental unfitness must be proved by clear and convincing evidence]; Santosky v. Kramer (1982) 455 U.S. 745, 759 [71 L.Ed.2d 599, 610, 12 S.Ct. 1388] [same].) The Court of Appeal denied Cynthia writ relief.
*258We granted Cynthia’s petition for review to resolve whether proof by clear and convincing evidence is necessary to terminate parental rights under the juvenile dependency scheme.
II
In 1987, the Legislature enacted Senate Bill No. 243, 1987-1988 Regular Session, which altered aspects of the juvenile dependency law, including the procedures for terminating parental rights in cases involving children who were dependents of the juvenile court. (§ 300 et seq.) The changes reflected the Legislature’s concerns that the statutory grounds for removing children from parental custody were too broad and not uniformly applied; that children removed from parental custody spent long periods of time in foster care placements and frequently were subjected to multiple placements; and that parental rights were being terminated without any certainty that the children would ever be adopted. (Sen. Select Com. on Children & Youth, SB 1195 Task Force Rep. on Child Abuse Reporting Laws, Juvenile Dependency Statutes, and Child Welfare Services (Jan. 1988) [hereafter Task Force Report]; see Wald, State Intervention on Behalf of “Neglected” Children: Standards for Removal of Children From Their Homes, Monitoring the Status of Children in Foster Care, and Termination of Parental Rights (1976) 28 Stan.L.Rev. 625, 636-637.) With these concerns in mind, the Legislature narrowed the categories for initial removal of a child from parental custody (§§ 300, 361, subd. (b)); mandated that the state provide the parents social services designed to reunify families (§ 361.5); and provided a swift procedure for terminating parental rights to free a child for adoption once the child was under the jurisdiction of the juvenile dependency system (§§ 366.21, 366.22, 366.26).
Under the new dependency statutes, the status of every child temporarily removed from parental custody must be judicially reviewed once every six months for a period of no more than eighteen months. (§§ 366, 366.21, 366.22. ) If, at the 12-month status review hearing, there is no substantial probability the child will be returned to the parents within the next 6 months, or if at the 18-month status review hearing the child is not returned to the parents, the juvenile court must set the matter for a “selection and implementation” hearing under section 366.26 to develop a plan for permanent placement of the child, either in foster care, a guardianship, or adoption. (§§ 366.21, subd. (g), 366.22, subd. (a), 366.26.) For young children and those children for whom adoptive parents are available, adoption is usually the preferred placement because it offers the prospect of a secure permanent home. (See In re Heather B. (1992) 9 Cal.App.4th 535, 558 [11 Cal.Rptr. 891].) To free a child for adoption, however, the juvenile court must first terminate the natural parents’ rights in the child. (§ 366.26.)
*259To effectuate the termination of parental rights, the statutory scheme requires the juvenile court to make certain preliminary findings. Thus, at the 12- or 18-month status review hearing, before ordering a section 366.26 “selection and implementation” hearing, the juvenile court must find that the department of social services has offered reasonable reunification services to the child’s parents and that return of the child to parental custody poses “a substantial risk of detriment to the physical or emotional well-being” of the child. (§§ 366.21, subd. (e), 366.22, subd. (a).) These statutes expressly provide that the “substantial risk of detriment” need be shown only by a “preponderance of the evidence.” After making the required findings at the 12- or 18-month status review hearing and setting the matter for a section 366.26 “selection and implementation” hearing, the juvenile court cannot permanently sever parental rights in a child without also finding, by “clear and convincing evidence,” that the child is likely to be adopted. (§ 366.26, subd. (c)(1).) If the court determines that the child is likely to be adopted, however, the court findings made at the earlier 12- or 18-month status review hearing that the child should not be returned to parental custody shall then, in the words of the statute, “constitute a sufficient basis for the termination of parental rights unless the court finds that termination would be detrimental” to the child. (§ 366.26, subd. (c)(1).)
Thus, so long as the minor child is likely to be adopted, the actual court order terminating parental rights is essentially “automatic” at the later section 366.26 hearing. (Task Force Report, supra, p. 11.) As the Task Force Report points out, the “critical decision regarding parental rights” under the child dependency scheme is not made when the juvenile court actually terminates parental rights at the section 366.26 hearing, but earlier, at the 12- or 18-month status review hearing, when the court decides that “the minor cannot be returned home and that reunification efforts should not be pursued.” (Ibid.)
Ill
In decisions addressing the evidentiary standard for terminating parental rights, as I mentioned earlier, both this court and the United States Supreme Court have concluded that the finding critical to the termination of parental rights must be supported by clear and convincing evidence.
In In re Angelia P., supra, 28 Cal.3d 908, this court considered the standard of proof necessary for terminating parental rights under Civil Code *260section 232,2 which requires a showing of parental unfitness. We concluded that “clear and convincing” evidence of parental unfitness was most consistent with the statutory goal of providing the fullest opportunity for the parents to exercise their rights without impairment of the best interests of the child. (In re Angelia P., supra, at p. 919.) One year later, the United States Supreme Court considered the standard of proof used to terminate parental rights under the New York Family Court Act, and concluded that the due process clause of the federal Constitution required proof by clear and convincing evidence. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 770 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 617-618].)
In Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. 743, the State of New York initiated child neglect proceedings that led the family law court to remove the Santosky’s three minor children from parental custody and control. After the children had been dependents of the family law court for almost five years, New York’s department of social services asked the court to terminate the parents’ rights with respect to the three children. To effect a permanent extinguishment of parental rights, the New York statute required proof of parental unfitness only by a “ ‘fair preponderance of the evidence.’ ” (Id. at p. 747 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 602-603].) But, as the high court pointed out in Santosky, due process requires more: “Before a State may sever completely and irrevocably the rights of parents in their natural child, due process requires that the State support its allegations by at least clear and convincing evidence.” (Id. at pp. 747-748 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 603-604].)
The determination whether a particular evidentiary standard that a state uses to terminate parental rights comports with the constitutional requirements of due process turns on a balancing of . three factors that the United States Supreme Court articulated in Mathews v. Eldridge (1976) 424 U.S. 319, 335 [47 L.Ed.2d 18, 33-34, 96 S.Ct. 893]. As subsequently reiterated by the high court, these factors are: “the private interests affected by the proceeding; the risk of error created by the State’s chosen procedure; and the countervailing governmental interest supporting use of the challenged procedure.” (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 754 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 606-607].)
In considering the first of these factors—the private interest at stake—the United States Supreme Court observed that the interest a parent has in the continued care, custody and control of his or her minor child is a “fundamental liberty interest,” which is “commanding” and “far more precious than *261any property right.” (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at pp. 758-759 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 609-610], citing Stanley v. Illinois (1972) 405 U.S. 645, 651 [31 L.Ed.2d 551, 558-559, 92 S.Ct. 1208], and Lassiter v. Department of Social Services (1981) 452 U.S. 18, 27 [68 L.Ed.2d 640, 649-650, 101 S.Ct. 2153].) As the court explained, a state-initiated action to terminate parental rights, “seeks not merely to infringe” this fundamental liberty interest, “but to end it.” (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 759 [71 L.Ed.2d at p. 610].)
The Santosky court then turned to the second factor of the test set forth in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34]—the risk of error created by using a particular procedure. The court found the risk of error in using the lowest burden of proof, “preponderance of the evidence,” in a parental rights termination proceeding to be “substantial,” especially in light of the grave consequence of total extinguishment of a family relationship that would result from an erroneous ruling in such a proceeding. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at pp. 758, 764 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 609, 613-614].)
Finally, the Santosky court considered the third and last factor of the test it had enunciated earlier in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34]—the state’s countervailing interests in its chosen procedure. In this evaluation, the high court in Santosky identified two legitimate interests that the government has in parental termination proceedings: a fiscal and administrative interest in reducing the burdens or costs of the termination proceedings, and a parens patriae interest in the preservation and promotion of the child’s welfare. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 766 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 614-615].) In both instances, the high court characterized as “comparatively slight” New York’s interests in using a lowered evidentiary standard, that of proof by a preponderance of the evidence, in a parental rights termination proceeding. (Id. at p. 758 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 609-610].)
With respect to the state’s fiscal concerns, the court explained in Santosky that an elevated standard of proof would not adversely affect that interest. Proof of parental unfitness by clear and convincing evidence, the court observed, is no more costly and does not create any more administrative burdens than proof by a preponderance of the evidence. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 767 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 615-616].) In addressing the state’s parens patriae interest in the welfare of the child, the high court observed that the statutory scheme at issue in Santosky, the New York Family Court Act, sought to preserve natural family bonds whenever possible. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 767 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. *262615-616].) Use of a “preponderance of the evidence’’ standard of proof to permanently sever parental rights, the court said, was not consistent with that statutory goal. (Ibid.)
After evaluating these three factors—the fundamental private interest at stake in a parental rights termination proceeding, the grave risk of error from a finding of parental unfitness at such a proceeding, and the absence of any overriding governmental interest favoring use of a preponderance of the evidence standard—the United States Supreme Court in Santosky concluded that to permanently terminate parental rights under the New York statute, due process required that the dispositive finding of parental unfitness be established by at least “clear and convincing” evidence. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 769 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 616-617].)
Thus, in Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at page 769 [71 L.Ed.2d at pages 616-617], application of the three-factor test of Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34], supported the use of a standard of proof higher than that of “preponderance of the evidence” in an action to terminate parental rights under the New York Family Court Act. The issue in this case is whether consideration of those same three factors— the private interest at stake, the risk of an erroneous determination, and the countervailing governmental interests—supports a contrary result when an action to terminate parental rights is brought under California’s amended enacted juvenile dependency statutes. I, unlike the majority, conclude it does not.
IV
The majority considers the California dependency procedures for terminating parental rights in light of the factors the United States Supreme Court specified in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34], and concludes that due process does not require use of the stricter standard of proof by clear and convincing evidence to terminate parental rights under that statutory scheme. (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 256.) According to the majority, to require an “elevated standard of proof” at the section 366.26 “selection and implementation” hearing, would “heavily burden efforts to place the child in a permanent home.” (Maj. opn., ante, at p. 256.)
But Cynthia, the child’s mother, does not contend that due process compels an elevated standard of proof at the section 366.26 “selection and implementation” hearing. Rather, her argument is that a higher standard of proof by clear and convincing evidence must be applied to the dependency *263court’s final decision not to return a child to parental custody, either at the 12- or 18-month status review hearing. (§§ 366.21, subd. (e), 366.22, subd. (a).) The Task Force Report prepared for the California Senate calls this the “critical decision” in terminating parental rights under the California dependency statutes because it is the last substantive evaluation necessary to the juvenile court’s termination of parental rights. (Task Force Report, supra, p. 11.) By ignoring the decision critical to terminating parental rights and instead focusing on a later phase of the dependency procedures—the section 366.26 “selection and implementation” hearing—the majority skews its evaluation of the three-factor test of Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34], to favor the lower standard of proof by a preponderance of the evidence. But use of that lower standard of proof does not withstand scrutiny when the test the high court established in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, is applied to the critical decision in terminating parental rights under the California juvenile dependency scheme, as I shall explain.
V
Under the test that the United States Supreme Court established in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34], to determine whether state procedures that work a deprivation comport with due process, the first factor to be considered is the private interest affected by the threatened deprivation. In an action initiated by the state to terminate parental rights, the private interest at stake is a parent’s “fundamental” and “commanding” liberty interest in maintaining a parent-child relationship with the child. (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at pp. 758-759 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 609-610].) Irrespective of whether state proceedings to terminate parental rights are brought under the New York Family Court Act at issue in Santosky, under the California Civil Code provision this court considered in In re Angelia P., supra, 28 Cal.3d 908, or under the California juvenile dependency statutes, the private interest at stake is just as “fundamental” and “commanding.” Nor is the threatened deprivation any less permanent for the parents or for the child when, as here, the state initiates proceedings to terminate parental rights under California’s juvenile dependency statutes. Thus, the private interest affected when parental rights are threatened in a juvenile court dependency action supports using the same standard of proof required to terminate parental rights under the New York and the California Civil Code procedures—proof by clear and convincing evidence.
I now turn to the second factor of the test set forth in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34]: the risk that using *264the “preponderance of the evidence” standard in the California juvenile dependency scheme may lead to an erroneous deprivation of parental rights. In Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at page 761 [71 L.Ed.2d at pages 611-612], the United States Supreme Court held that the prospect for an erroneous deprivation of parental rights based on proof by a preponderance of the evidence, the standard adopted by the New York Family Court Act, was “significant.” In part, the high court’s conclusion rested on the state’s superior ability to assemble its case and the potential for cultural or class bias against the parents who, in most termination proceedings, are “poor, uneducated, or members of minority groups.” (Id. at pp. 763-764 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 612-615].)
Although California’s juvenile dependency procedures for terminating parental rights differ in certain respects from the procedures under the New York Family Court Act, those differences do not appreciably diminish the potential risk of making an erroneous determination on the critical question under the California juvenile dependency scheme: whether the child should be returned to the parent(s). When termination of parental rights is at issue under the California dependency statutes, the child will always be a dependent of the court and not in parental custody. This situation tends to magnify the state’s ability to marshall its case. Moreover, the potential for class or cultural bias in a decision that will result in freeing a child for adoption by a family with greater resources than the natural parents is no less acute in California than in New York.
As the United States Supreme Court explained in Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. 745, increasing the burden of proof on the state at the critical phase of the proceedings to terminate parental rights “ ‘is one way to impress the factfinder with the importance of the decision’ ” and to thereby reduce the risk that parental rights will be erroneously extinguished. (Id. at pp. 764-765 [71 L.Ed.2d at p. 614], quoting Addington v. Texas (1979) 441 U.S. 418, 427 [60 L.Ed.2d 323, 331-332, 99 S.Ct. 1804].) The rights at issue in any parental termination proceeding are just too important to take an unnecessary risk.
The third and final factor of the test articulated in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34], is the government’s interest in its chosen procedure. With respect to an action brought to terminate parental rights, the government has not only an interest in avoiding added fiscal and administrative burdens that an additional procedural requirement might entail, but also a parens patriae interest in the child’s welfare. (See Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 754 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 606-607].)
*265As to the fiscal or administrative burden, the high court has stated that “a stricter standard of proof would reduce factual error without imposing substantial fiscal burdens” on the state, and rejected the notion that employing a higher standard of proof in parental rights termination proceedings would “create any real administrative burdens . . . (Santosky v. Kramer, supra, 455 U.S. at p. 767 [71 L.Ed.2d at pp. 615-616].) The same is no less true under the California juvenile dependency statutes in this case.
The parens patriae interest that is at stake at a 12- or 18-month status review under California’s juvenile dependency scheme is the state’s interest in reunifying the child with its natural parents, if possible. (§§ 366.21, subd. (e), 366.22, subd. (a).) But the degree of accuracy in achieving that interest is enhanced, not impaired, by the use of a “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard to determine whether return of the child to parental custody would, in the terms of the statutory language, “create a substantial risk of detriment to the physical or emotional well-being” of the child. (Ibid.)
To summarize, application of the three-factor test that the United States Supreme Court established in Mathews v. Eldridge, supra, 424 U.S. at page 335 [47 L.Ed.2d at pages 33-34], would best promote factual certainty in making the finding that is critical to terminating parental rights, while striking a fair balance between the competing interests of the parents and the state. Accordingly, I would hold that for the juvenile court to terminate parental rights with respect to a minor child at a section 366.26 “selection and implementation” hearing, clear and convincing evidence must support the finding made at the last status review hearing that returning the child to parental custody posed a substantial risk of detriment to the child.
Conclusion
I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal, with directions to remand this matter to the trial court for a reevaluation of the evidence presented at the 18-month status review hearing, based on the use of a “clear and convincing” evidentiary standard.
Petitioner’s application for a rehearing was denied July 29, 1993. Kennard, J., was of the opinion that the application should be granted.

Further unlabeled statutory references are to the Welfare and Institutions Code.

Civil Code section 232 sets out a procedure for declaring children free of the custody and control of one parent or both. In 1981 when this court decided In re Angelia P., supra, 28 Cal.3d 908, section 232 governed all such proceedings, including those involving children who had been declared dependents of the juvenile court. (§ 300 et seq.)