J. F.

v.

DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN & FAMILIES AND STATEWIDE GUARDIAN AD LITEM

SIXTH DISTRICT COURT OF APPEAL

STATE OF FLORIDA

_____________________________

Case No. 6D24-105 Lower Tribunal No. 2023-DP-73 _____________________________

In the Interest of J.F. and P.K, children, J.F., Appellant, v. DEPARTMENT OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES and STATEWIDE GUARDIAN AD LITEM, Appellees. _____________________________

Appeal from the Circuit Court for Osceola County. Laura Shaffer, Judge.

May⁸, 2024

GANNAM, J.

In this dependency case, the father of children J.F. and P.K. appeals the trial court’s supplemental order finding the father contributed to the children’s previously adjudicated dependency status under the Florida Juvenile Justice Act, chapter 39, Florida Statutes. Because the trial court did not apply the correct legal standard, and the record evidence is not legally sufficient to support a finding that the father engaged in conduct placing J.F. and P.K. at substantial risk of imminent abuse, we

I.

J.F. and P.K., ages eight and five, were removed from the home they shared with their mother and her boyfriend pursuant to a shelter order.¹ Following the removal of J.F. and P.K. from their mother’s house, the Department of Children and Families (DCF) filed a dependency petition alleging numerous grounds of neglect and other harms by the mother, and as to the father alleging he cannot take custody of J.F. and P.K. because his girlfriend “has disqualifying abuse history, and she would be the main caregiver for the children while he works.” There is no allegation that the father or his girlfriend ever abused, abandoned, or neglected J.F. or P.K. At the arraignment on the dependency petition, the father and mother each denied the respective allegations against them, and the trial court set an adjudicatory hearing. Before the hearing, however, the mother consented to adjudication of dependency, resulting in an order adjudicating J.F. and P.K. dependent and placing them in foster care. DCF moved for supplemental findings that the father contributed

1 A third child of the mother, N.C., was also removed and adjudicated dependent, but is not related to the appellant father or this appeal.

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II.

A.

It was DCF’s burden below to prove the dependency petition allegations against the father by a preponderance of the evidence. Fla. R. Juv. P. 8.330(a). The trial court’s adjudication of dependency “is a mixed question of law and fact and will be sustained on review if the court applied the correct law and its ruling is supported by competent substantial evidence in the record,” which “is tantamount to legally sufficient evidence.” In re M.F., 770 So. 2d 1189, 1192 (Fla. 2000). We give deference to the trial court’s resolution of conflicting evidence, see L.M. v. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., 336 So. 3d 1291, 1291 (Fla. 5th DCA 2022), but we review de novo the trial court’s application of the law to the facts. See D.R. v. J.R., 203 So. 3d 952, 954 (Fla. 5th DCA 2016).

B.

A trial court may adjudicate a child dependent based on the conduct of one parent, see § 39.507(7)(a), Fla. Stat. (2023); Fla. R. Juv. P. 8.315(a), but must also determine whether, at the time the child was adjudicated dependent, the other parent had “abused, abandoned, or neglected the child or engaged in conduct that placed the child at substantial risk of imminent abuse, abandonment, or neglect.”

2 Section 39.507(7)(b) is concerned with only two of the seven alternative categories composing the statutory definition of a dependent child. Compare § 39.507(7)(b), Fla. Stat. (requiring determination of whether other parent “abused, abandoned, or neglected the child or engaged in conduct that placed the child at substantial risk of imminent abuse, abandonment, or neglect”), with § 39.01(14), Fla. Stat. (defining dependent child as, inter alia, “(a) . . . abandoned, abused, or neglected by the child’s parent” or “(f) . . . at substantial risk of imminent abuse, abandonment, or neglect by the parent”).

C.

Applying the correct legal standard—whether the father “engaged in conduct that placed [J.F. and P.K.] at substantial risk of imminent abuse” under section 39.507(7)(b)—there also was not sufficient evidence in the record for the trial court to have adjudicated the children dependent as to the father. The supplemental order makes several subsidiary factual findings which have evidentiary support, but which are not legally sufficient to support the adjudication. The subsidiary findings concern the father’s conduct in two categories: (1) the father’s living with a girlfriend who, over fourteen years ago, was charged by police and investigated by DCF for an incident of alleged abuse of a child she and the father have in common, and (2) the father’s corporal punishment of the same child, in an even earlier incident, resulting in a bruise on the child’s face. Following is a review of the record evidence supporting these findings.

1.

In 2009, the father’s girlfriend was arrested and criminally charged by police, and investigated by DCF, for an incident of alleged abuse of one of the four children

3 The four children the father and his girlfriend have in common range in age from one to eighteen years. 4 See Fla. Admin. Code R. 65C-30.001(77) (“‘Other Parent Home Assessment’ means the assessment of a parent and the parent’s household prior to the child’s release or placement, in order to determine if the parent will be able to safely care for the child.”); Fla. Admin. Code R. 65C-28.012(1) (“Prior to release or placement of a child with another parent, an ‘Other Parent Home Assessment,’ CF- FSP 5411, October 2013, incorporated by reference and available at http:// www.flrules.org/Gateway/reference.asp?No=Ref-06741, must be completed.”)

2.

During the father’s testimony at the supplemental hearing, he admitted to corporal discipline of the same child for wetting himself, though only after repeated verbal admonitions. The father also did not dispute his girlfriend’s testimony that, when the child was three years old, the father hit the child’s face, leaving a bruise. Regarding his work schedule, he testified that he is willing to change from the night shift to the day shift which would allow him to be home with his children after school instead of leaving them with his girlfriend while he works, but that he has not yet asked his employer for the change and does not know whether his employer would approve it.

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D.

The record evidence supports the trial court’s subsidiary findings that the girlfriend hit her four-year-old with a belt (in 2009), and that the father hit the same child on the face, leaving a bruise (a year earlier). These incidents, however, on this record, do not constitute “abuse” as defined in chapter 39, and do not otherwise support a finding of substantial risk of imminent abuse. “Abuse” is defined in chapter 39 to exclude corporal discipline that is not harmful: “Abuse” means any willful act or threatened act that results in any physical, mental, or sexual abuse, injury, or harm that causes or is likely to cause the child’s physical, mental, or emotional health to be significantly impaired. . . . Corporal discipline of a child by a parent or legal custodian for disciplinary purposes does not in itself constitute abuse when it does not result in harm to the child. § 39.01(2), Fla. Stat. (emphasis added). “‘Harm’ . . . can occur,” according to the statute, by any person’s infliction of “physical, mental, or emotional injury,” which “includes, but is not limited to:” . . . . Inappropriate or excessively harsh disciplinary action that is likely to result in physical injury, mental injury . . . or emotional injury. The significance of any injury must be evaluated in light of the following factors: the age of the child; any prior history of injuries to the child; the location of the injury on the body of the child; the multiplicity of the injury; and the type of trauma inflicted. Corporal

10 discipline may be considered excessive or abusive when it results in any of the following or other similar injuries: . . . . Significant bruises or welts. § 39.01(34)(a)4, Fla. Stat. (emphasis added). Under these statutory definitions, corporal discipline must “result in harm” to be abuse, which generally means it must result in injury or significant impairment of physical, mental, or emotional health. And bruising from corporal discipline must be “significant” to be deemed an abusive injury. Thus, our sister district courts have held hitting with a belt and hitting on the face, even if bruising, are not abusive corporal discipline without evidence of injury or significant health impairment. See, e.g., L.M. v. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., 336 So. 3d 1291, 1292 (Fla. 5th DCA 2022) (collecting cases); T.G. v. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., 927 So. 2d 104, 106 (Fla. 1st DCA 2006) (holding single incident of corporal discipline causing bruise was insufficient to establish abuse where no evidence bruise required medical attention or was otherwise significant); J.C. v. Dep’t of Child. & Fams., 773 So. 2d 1220, 1221–22 (Fla. 4th DCA 2000) (holding father’s routine spanking of oldest child with belt, causing bruise to child’s buttocks on one occasion, was insufficient to establish abuse where no evidence bruise was significant or constituted temporary disfigurement); In re W.P., 534 So. 2d 905, 905 (Fla. 2d DCA 1988) (holding father’s slapping child on face, leaving mark, and mother’s pulling the child’s hair

As for the father’s own conduct, it is true that DCF did not need to prove he actually abused his other child in order to prove he contributed to the dependency of

III.

We do not hold that corporal discipline of a three- or four-year-old for wetting himself can never be abusive—it could be if it meets the legal definition of “harm” in chapter 39. No doubt for many, such discipline strains any sense of proportionality, and the trial court was right to take it seriously. The record evidence

REVERSED and REMANDED.

MIZE and BROWNLEE, JJ., concur.

Tiffany Gatesh Fearing, of Suncoast Legal Group, P.L., Spring Hill, for Appellant.

Kelley Schaeffer, Appellate Counsel, of Children’s Legal Services, Bradenton, for Appellee, Department of Children and Families.

Sara Elizabeth Goldfarb, Statewide Director of Appeals, and Caitlin E. Burke, Senior Attorney, Appellate Division, of Statewide Guardian ad Litem Office, Tallahassee, for Appellee, Statewide Guardian ad Litem.

NOT FINAL UNTIL TIME EXPIRES TO FILE MOTION FOR REHEARING

AND DISPOSITION THEREOF IF TIMELY FILED