Court Opinion

ID: 9657303
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 20:19:35.967939+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:43.101957
License: Public Domain

Caporale, J.,
dissenting.
I must dissent, for while I do not suggest the mother should be given immediate possession and custody of her daughter, the record, in my mind, demonstrates she has made sufficient progress to warrant granting her additional time within which to attempt further improvement.
When all is said and done, the majority forever severs the natural and constitutionally protected relationship between a young mother and her infant daughter because discipline broke down on at least one occasion; because the child reacts with some agitation after visiting with her mother; and because, in the opinion of a social worker, the mother has experienced difficulty meeting the daughter’s physical, emotional, and intellectual needs and will never be able to provide the child with a stable environment. Notwithstanding the fact that the record provides us with no information as to why the child reacts as she does after leaving her mother, the majority characterizes the evidence as “clearly and convincingly” establishing that the best interests of the child will be served by immediately turning her into an orphan.
The fact the mother divorced the child’s abusive father apparently does not impress the majority; the fact the mother found employment, although later than directed, apparently does not impress the majority; the fact the mother took the myriad other steps she was ordered to take in an effort to improve her abilities as a parent apparently does not impress the majority.
I do not overlook that the mother has thus far not been able to apply all she has been taught about becoming a model parent or that there is no competent evidence that she will be able to do so. The burden, however, is not on the mother to prove she can learn, but on the State to prove that she cannot. It is the State which has the burden of proving by clear and convincing evidence that grounds exist for terminating parental rights; it is not the parent’s burden to prove by any evidential standard that no such grounds exist. As this very court has observed:
*452“The fundamental liberty interest of natural parents in the care, custody, and management of their child does not evaporate simply because they have not been model parents or have lost temporary custody of their child to the State. Even when blood relationships are strained, parents retain a vital interest in preventing the irretrievable destruction of their family life. If anything, persons faced with forced dissolution of their parental rights have a more critical need for procedural protections than do those resisting state intervention into ongoing family affairs. When the State moves to destroy weakened familial bonds, it must provide the parents with fundamentally fair procedures____”
In re Interest of J.S., A.C., and C.S., 227 Neb. 251, 264, 417 N.W.2d 147, 156 (1987). See, also, In re Interest of L.J., J.J., and J.N.J., 220 Neb. 102, 368 N.W.2d 474 (1985); Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 102 S. Ct. 1388, 71 L. Ed. 2d 599 (1982); Lassiter v. Department of Social Services, 452 U.S. 18, 101 S. Ct. 2153, 68 L. Ed. 2d 640 (1981).
I recognize, too, that a child cannot and will not be made to await uncertain parental maturity. In re Interest of Z.D.D. and N.J.D., ante p. 236, 430 N.W.2d 552 (1988); In re Interest of R.A., 226 Neb. 160, 410 N.W.2d 110 (1987). See, also, In re Interest of J.D.M., ante p. 273, 430 N.W.2d 689 (1988). This court has observed, however, that the foregoing principle should not be used to tread upon the rights of either a parent or a child. In re Interest of L. J., J.J., and J.N.J., supra. Although the juvenile justice system far too frequently takes much too long to do what obviously must be done, in my view the system has acted far too hastily in this instance, and in so doing has trampled upon the mother’s constitutionally protected parental rights.
Clear and convincing evidence has been defined to be that amount of evidence which produces in the trier of fact a firm belief or conviction about the existence of a fact to be proved. Tobin v. Flynn & Larsen Implement Co., 220 Neb. 259, 369 N.W.2d 96 (1985); In re Guardianship of Sain, 217 Neb. 96, 348 N.W.2d 435 (1984); Castellano v. Bitkower, 216 Neb. 806, 346 N.W.2d 249 (1984). The evidence in this case simply does not *453rise to that level at this point. As the guardian ad litem for the child suggests, on the record presented the mother is entitled to additional time to learn to be an adequate, if not a model, parent; if more time continues to demonstrate she cannot apply what she is taught, the State will then have the requisite evidence.
In saying that the evidence clearly and convincingly establishes grounds for termination of the parental rights of the mother at this point, the majority, in my view, has used legally correct words to reach a legally incorrect result. As a consequence, the relationship between every parent and child in this sovereign state has been impoverished.
White and Shanahan, JJ., join in this dissent.