Amy S. v. State, Department of Health & Social Services, Office of Children's Services

Summary

The Alaska Supreme Court affirmed a superior court's adjudication of a child as a child in need of aid. Assuming without deciding that the superior court violated the mother's procedural due process rights by relying on information from a prior custody proceeding without adequate notice, the court held that the mother failed to demonstrate prejudice and that any error was harmless.

Holdings

1. A party who had no adequate opportunity to object to the court's use of information preserves a due process claim for appellate review, and the claim is reviewed de novo.
2. Alaska Statute 47.10.113 does not require a CINA court to take judicial notice of or consider factual matters from prior custody-related proceedings.
3. A court may judicially notice the existence and procedural facts of prior court proceedings, but contested factual findings in those records generally are not proper subjects of judicial notice; such information may nevertheless be admitted through an applicable evidentiary rule.
4. Even assuming the superior court violated Amy's procedural due process rights by relying on custody-case information without adequate notice and an opportunity to respond, the error was harmless because Amy failed to show a plausible basis for prejudice.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Amy preserved her procedural due process challenge when she lacked an adequate opportunity to object in the superior court.
2. Whether Alaska Statute 47.10.113 required the superior court to consider information from prior custody-related proceedings in adjudicating a child in need of aid.
3. Whether the superior court's assumed failure to provide notice and an opportunity to respond to custody-case information required reversal of the CINA adjudication.

Disposition

affirmed