Court Opinion

ID: 9747549
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-27 15:20:27.602733+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:25:24.452396
License: Public Domain

Longo, J.
(dissenting.) I respectfully dissent. It seems to me that the plaintiff had the constitutional right to a hearing after the child was taken from her custody in October, 1974, and that General Statutes § 17-62 (f) is an appropriate avenue for pressing this claim under the unique circumstances of this case.
The thrust of the majority opinion in this regard is that the plaintiff received all the due process to which she was entitled by virtue of her appearance with counsel at the February, 1974, hearing when a finding of neglect by the natural mother was made and custody of the child was transferred to the welfare department. In my opinion, however, the due process accorded the plaintiff at the hearing on the issue of the natural mother’s neglect cannot limit or govern the due process right to a hearing which arose in the plaintiff after the state had entrusted the child to her and then summarily removed the child from her care. That due process must be accorded in a state action, involving revocation of a state-given right or privilege has been a concept developed in the opinions of the United States Supreme Court in recent years. As examples, it is now well-established that elements of due process such as notice and the opportunity for a hear*640ing and cross-examination must be present in proceedings to revoke welfare benefits; Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 90 S. Ct. 1011, 25 L. Ed. 2d 287; driver’s licenses; Bell v. Burson, 402 U.S. 535, 91 S. Ct. 1586, 29 L. Ed. 2d 90; and parole and probation; Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U.S. 471, 92 S. Ct. 2593, 33 L. Ed. 2d 484; Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U.S. 778, 93 S. Ct. 1756, 36 L. Ed. 2d 656. It seems to me that the state’s removal of foster children from foster parents should be no less subject to the same guarantees.
In Stanley v. Illinois, 405 U.S. 645, 92 S. Ct. 1208, 31 L. Ed. 2d 551, a natural father successfully challenged an Illinois statute which allowed the state to deprive him of custody of his illegitimate children without a hearing. The court held that individual hearings were constitutionally required before the state could separate unfit parents from their children, and stated (p. 651): “It is plain that the interest of a parent in the companionship, care, custody, and management of his or her children ‘come[s] to this Court with a momentum for respect lacking when appeal is made to liberties which derive merely from shifting economic arrangements.’ Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77, 95 [69 S. Ct. 448, 93 L. Ed. 513] (1949) (Frankfurter, J., concurring).”
Stanley is distinguishable from the present case in that the plaintiff here is not the natural parent of the child in question. Recent cases, however, have blurred the distinction between rights of natural parents and the rights of foster parents in this area; see, e.g., Borsdorf v. Mills, 49 Ala. App. 658, 275 So. 2d 338; In re One Minor Child, 254 A.2d 443 (Del.); In re Fleming, 271 Minn. 337, 136 *641N.W.2d 109; Pace v. Curtis, 496 S.W.2d 931 (Tex. Civ. App.); and much commentary has been written in recent years about biological and psychological parents and to what respect each is entitled in custody determinations. One of the most influential works in the area is Goldstein, Freud & Solnit, “Beyond the Best Interests of the Child,” in which the authors contend (p. 19) that the role of a psychological parent may be filled by any concerned, attentive adult on the basis of “day-to-day interaction, companionship, and shared experiences.”
I do not suggest that all legal distinctions between biological, legal and psychological parents be abolished, but rather suggest that the one who has cared for a child over a long period of time will develop mutual bonds of love and dependence with the child. Despite the lack of a biological tie in this ease, the plaintiff has stood in loco parentis since the child was four months old and was for six years, until the child was removed from her home, the only full-time mother the child had ever known. Under these circumstances, the absence of a biological connection cannot be regarded as fatal to the plaintiff’s claim.
In James v. McLinden, 341 P. Sup. 1233 (D. Conn.), the court held that failure to notify foster parents of the filing of a petition of alleged neglect violated the due process and equal protection guarantees of the fourteenth amendment,. as well as the express terms of General Statutes § 17-61. The court observed (p. 1235): “There is no sound reason to deny a person who has voluntarily assumed the obligations of parenthood over a child the same basic rights to due process a natural or legal parent possesses when the state *642intervenes to disrupt or destroy the family unit.” Of course, in the present case, the plaintiff did attend the hearing on the neglect petition, although she did not participate. Nonetheless, the principle announced in James v. McLinden has equal currency when applied to the state’s action removing the child from the plaintiff’s care. The latter action was taken with no due process guarantees; the plaintiff has averred that she received a letter which informed her of the commissioner’s decision and that the child was then removed directly from school to the home of the natural mother. Under the circumstances the plaintiff had, at a minimum, the right to a hearing with respect to the propriety of the commissioner’s action.
In a recent decision, a three-judge district court invalidated on fourteenth amendment grounds a New York statute which allowed the state to remove foster children from foster homes without affording a prior evidentiary-hearing to either parents or children. The court held (p. 282) that, in placements lasting over one year, “before a foster child can be peremptorily transferred from the foster home in which he has been living, be it to another foster home or to the natural parents who initially placed him in foster care, lie is entitled to a hearing at which all concerned parties may present any relevant information to the administrative decision-maker charged with determining the future placement of the Child.” Organization of Foster Families v. Dumpson, 418 F. Sup. 277 (S.D. N.Y.).
It is thus apparent that the state action in removing the child from the plaintiff-foster parent’s home should be subject to the due process guarantees of the fourteenth amendment. To vindicate this right, the plaintiff proceeded under G-eneral *643Statutes § 17-62 (f) to move to “reopen” the commitment in the Juvenile Court. The essential allegation in her motion to “reopen” is not that she has a right to continued custody of the child, hut that “ [i]n handling the placement change in this emergency manner, the Welfare Department disrupted the most significant relationship [the child] has in a substitute family that she sees as her own and created exactly the kind of traumatic situation which its guidelines state must be avoided.” It is therefore clear that, while the motion was not filed by the child, it was filed for the child. And, although the plaintiff as a foster mother is not given the right to file such a motion in her own behalf, the legislature has specified in § 17-62 (f) that the child is a proper party to move to “reopen” commitment. As a practical matter, a child may often be unable to bring a court suit of his own initiative. Accordingly, there must be some instances in which another party is entitled to file under § 17-62 (f), asserting the rights of the child and giving effect to the legislative intent. The plaintiff’s unique position in this case so entitles her.
I am unpersuaded that an action under § 17-62 (f) should be foreclosed by a strict reading of that statute. The plaintiff’s motion raised before the Juvenile Court the issue of whether the welfare department’s action was in the best interest of the child. The legislature has explicitly vested “exclusive original jurisdiction” over matters pertaining to the custody of neglected children in the Juvenile Court. General Statutes § 17-59. As a motion under § 17-62 (f) is the most efficacious manner in which the best interest of the child can be determined, the plaintiff’s motion should have been considered in that light and decided on the merits.
*644In conclusion, then, the child has rights and interests which must he effectively protected, just as the plaintiff has rights which must be vindicated. A hearing conducted under General Statutes § 17-62 (f) is a fact-finding proceeding at which the child’s best interest is determined from an examination of all the relevant circumstances and events. Likewise, a determination by the department that a foster parent is not acting in the best interest of the child is based wholly on facts which should be established only after the protections of due process have been extended to the foster parent. See Goldberg v. Kelly, 397 U.S. 254, 269, 90 S. Ct. 1011, 25 L. Ed. 2d 287. As the rights are not protected and guarantees of due process have been denied in the present case, the welfare department’s action is open to challenge by the plaintiff-foster parent, and a hearing conducted pursuant to General Statutes § 17-62 (f) is an appropriate method for resolving issues pertaining to the best interest of the child, and the adequacy of the plaintiff’s care.
In this opinion Bogdanski, J., concurred.