IN THE INTEREST OF A.M., A CHILD
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The appellate court held that there was sufficient evidence to support the trial court's termination of parental rights based on failure to comply with performance agreements and abandonment.
A mother appealed an order terminating her parental rights, arguing she substantially complied with performance agreements and did not abandon her chi…
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PER CURIAM.
We withdraw our opinion and substitute the following in its place.
A mother appeals an order terminating her parental rights to her son. The trial court found both that she had failed to comply substantially with a second performance agreement and that she had abandoned her child by not visiting or having any contact with the child for an eight month period while under the performance agreement. We find there was sufficient evidence in the record to support the trial court’s determination, which is the test for our review. See Morrison v. Smith, 257 So. 2d 623 (Fla. 2d DCA 1972).
The mother claimed that she had completed most of the requirements of the first performance agreement within the required time frames. The first agreement was not substantially complied with, however, because the mother quit her job even though required to maintain steady employment under the terms of the agreement. Because the mother had not substantially complied with the first agreement, we find T.S. v. Dep’t. of H.R.S., 464 So. 2d 677 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985) to be inapposite. With regard to the second performance agreement, the mother failed to provide HRS with any information whatsoever to indicate that she had completed the required tasks until after the petition for termination was filed, five months after the expiration of the second performance agreement. Nor did the mother make any contact with her child until she was notified of the petition to terminate her rights, although the performance agreements provided for monthly visitation.
Finally, we reject the mother’s procedural due process argument finding that, even if her argument regarding sufficiency of the petition is valid, a point we do not decide, the mother waived any defect in the petition by failing to object to the introduction of evidence on the issue of abandonment, failing to object to the Department’s closing argument on abandonment, and failing to raise the issue in her motion for rehearing below.
The trial judge wrote in his order:
The purpose of the Juvenile Justice Act is to preserve and strengthen a child’s family ties whenever possible and when necessary to remove children for placement in an environment free of abuse, abandonment or neglect. ‘The severance of parent-child relationship is an extreme and harsh judicial act and it should not be done unless the trial judge is convinced that the statutory basis for this remedy had been clearly established.’ In Re: Adoption of Braithwaith [Braith-waite], 409 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982). The Court has thought long and hard over its decision and despite the mother’s request for another chance, the Court is clearly convinced that the manifest best interest of the child is to be placed for adoption.
On this record, we cannot disagree.
Affirmed.
STONE and WARNER, JJ„ and ROSS, DALE, Associate Judge, concur.
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Hroncich v. Dep't of Health & Rehabilitative Servs., 667 So. 2d 804 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995)…prison sex offender program from which he was released because he could not benefit from it because he was "an unbeatable pedophile." In contrast Hroncich’s illness is treatable, and it is presently in the residual phase. In In the Interest of A.M., 614 So. 2d 1161 (Fla.4th DCA 1993), the mother failed to substantially comply with the performance agreement and had abandoned her child. In In the Interest of C.W., 616 So. 2d 127 (Fla.2d DCA 1993), the mother was a schizophrenic who had not substantially complied…
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In the Interest of A.L.O., 637 So. 2d 15 (Fla. 4th DCA 1994)…not support a conclusion of abandonment and neglect. On remand, the court shall consider all relevant evidence, and decide whether less than marginal efforts were made by Appellee to satisfy her parental responsibilities. See In the Interest of AM., 614 So. 2d 1161 (Fla. 4th DCA 1993); J.R.R. v. Dept. of Health and Rehab. Serv., 580 [*18] So. 2d 304 (Fla. 1st DCA 1991); Lett v. Dept. of Health & Rehab. Serv., 547 So. 2d 328 (Fla. 5th DCA 1989); In the Interest ofR.V.F., 437 So. 2d 713 (Fla. 2d DCA 1983); In th…
Authorities Cited
- Nat'l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh v. Gulf Cent. Warehouse Ctr., Inc., 464 So. 2d 677 (Fla. 5th DCA 1985)
- Grady B. Morrison and Edna E. Morrison v. Smith, 257 So. 2d 623 (Fla. 4th DCA 1972)
- LEE v. LEE, 409 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982)
- In re the Adoption OF Bridgett Danielle Braithwaite v. Braithwaite, 409 So. 2d 1178 (Fla. 5th DCA 1982)