D.J., APPELLANT,
v.
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND REHABILITATIVE SERVICES, APPELLEE
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D.J. appealed the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services' decision to maintain her name on the child abuse registry following an investigation into alleged child abuse. The court reversed, finding that HRS failed to prove excessive corporal punishment by competent, substantial evidence and improperly relied on the passage of time rather than specific factual findings.
HRS's final order was reversed because the hearing officer failed to specify findings of fact necessary to support child abuse conclusions, improperly created a rebuttable presumption based on the passage of time, and did not prove excessive corporal punishment by competent, substantial evidence as required by law.
[1] A hearing officer's conclusions of law regarding child abuse must be supported by specific findings of fact.
[2] The determination of whether corporal punishment is excessive requires proof by competent, substantial evidence, not arbitrary presumptions.
Previewing 2 of 5 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“The hearing officer's conclusions of law that appellant abused her child are not supported by any findings of fact.”
Establishes the fundamental defect in the administrative decision—lack of factual support for legal conclusions
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceHRS investigated a report of child abuse involving D.J.'s four-year-old son on September 22, 1989. The investigator observed scratches on the child's …
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RYDER, Judge.
D.J. seeks review of the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services’ final order denying her request to have her name expunged from the child abuse registry. We reverse.
On September 22, 1989, HRS investigated a report of child abuse involving appellant’s four-year-old son. The HRS investigator observed a scratch on the child’s face and a scratch on his neck. The investigator also observed a bruise on the child’s neck. D.J. told the investigator that she had slapped the child on the face for throwing objects at her and not minding her two days prior to the investigation. Appellant said that she did not scratch her son, nor did she grab him by the neck.
The hearing officer’s conclusions of law that appellant abused her child are not supported by any findings of fact. The hearing officer did not specify that he found the marks observed on the child to constitute “temporary disfigurement.” § 415.503(14), Fla.Stat. (1989). The hearing officer did not specify any finding of “excessive corporal punishment.” § 415.503(9)(a)(l), Fla.Stat. (1989). The hearing officer’s conclusions of law, adopted by HRS, rely on the case of B.L. and R.W.H. v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 545 So. 2d 289 (Fla. 1st DCA), review denied, 553 So. 2d 1164 (Fla.1989) and the expiration of time. The statement by the hearing officer that the evidence in the record creates a “rebuttable presumption of abuse.... ” is inconsistent with our decision in B.R. and W.C. v. Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, 558 So. 2d 1027 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989), in which we disagreed with the majority opinion in B.L.
We held in B.R., that whether corporal punishment is excessive, must be proved in each ease by competent, substantial evidence without resort to arbitrary presumptions fixed by the passage of time. B.R., 558 So. 2d at 1029. The hearing officer set forth a conclusion of law, which was adopted by HRS in its final order, that HRS had met its burden of proof by showing that appellant had struck her child on the face “in a manner that caused red marks and a bruise to appear and last for at least 2 days.” The reliance by HRS on the passage of time, without more, constitutes reversible error. See B.R. Accordingly, we reverse the final order appealed and remand the case with di rections to HRS to expunge appellant’s name from the child abuse registry.
Reversed and remanded.
SCHOONOVER, C.J., and LEHAN, J., concur.
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R.S.M. v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 640 So. 2d 1126 (Fla. 2d DCA 1994)…9). We held there that the existence of excessive corporal punishment must be proved in each case by competent, substantial evidence “without resort to arbitrary presumptions fixed by the passage of time.” Id. at 1029. See also D.J. v. Dept. of HRS, 565 So. 2d 863 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). In any event, the evidence here is, at the least, equivocal as to whether the bruises lasted as long as 24 hours. [*1127] We conclude that under the facts present here, the mere presence of bruises resulting from corporal punishm…
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M.O. McC. v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 575 So. 2d 1352 (Fla. 2d DCA 1991)…e hearing officer’s legal conclusion that the appellant is a child abuser because we cannot agree that the corporal punishment inflicted here was excessive so as to be violative of section 415.503. See D.J. v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Serv., 565 So. 2d 863 (Fla. 2d DCA 1990). Compare B.R. v. Dep’t of Health & Rehabilitative Serv., 558 So. 2d 1027 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989) (basing finding of child abuse on 24-hour bruise rule of agency improper). The hearing officer, in his report which was adopted by the app…
Authorities Cited
- B.R. and W.C. v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 558 So. 2d 1027 (Fla. 2d DCA 1989)
- Shanbrun v. Dade Eng'g Corp., 545 So. 2d 289 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)
- B.L. and R.W.H. v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 545 So. 2d 289 (Fla. 1st DCA 1989)