Summary
The Arkansas Supreme Court reviewed the termination of Jacob Earls’s parental rights to his twins. The court held that the record did not establish Earls’s legal status as a parent for purposes of the applicable statutory grounds and reversed and remanded, vacating the court of appeals’ opinion.
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Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether Earls preserved his challenge to the statutory requirement that he qualify as a parent or noncustodial parent for purposes of the termination grounds.
- Whether the circuit court could terminate Earls's parental rights under Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-27-341 when the record did not establish his legal status as the children's biological or legal parent and did not establish the applicable twelve-month statutory period.
- Whether the circuit court's termination order could stand based on the two statutory grounds found by the court.
Holdings
- Earls preserved his challenge to the statutory grounds for termination because his challenge to those grounds necessarily included the requirement that he qualify as a parent or noncustodial parent under the statute.
- The circuit court erred in terminating Earls's parental rights because the record did not establish his legal status as a parent or biological parent for purposes of applying the twelve-month requirements in Arkansas Code Annotated section 9-27-341.
- The circuit court could not terminate Earls's parental rights on the two cited statutory grounds because the record failed to establish the required parental status and applicable twelve-month period.
Key quotations
“A plain reading of the applicable statute, Ark. Code Ann. § 9-27-303(40), defining “parent” means that a parent can be biological, or by adoption, or by a man who is married to a biological mother at the time of conception or by a man who has signed an acknowledgment of paternity, or by being found by a court of competent jurisdiction to be the biological father.” (at 10-11)
“Therefore, Earls’s rights had not attached to then be terminated.” (at 11)
“Reversed and remanded; court of appeals’ opinion vacated.” (at 12)
Factual background
The twins S.M. and D.M. tested positive for methamphetamine at birth and were removed from their mother's custody. Earls was initially treated as a putative father, and a DNA test filed on May 1, 2015, showed a 99.99 percent probability that he was the biological father. Earls was incarcerated during much of the dependency-neglect proceeding, received little or no DHS-provided services, and had not maintained meaningful contact with the children. The circuit court terminated his parental rights based on failure-to-remedy and failure-to-support-or-maintain-contact grounds.
Procedural history
The Greene County Circuit Court terminated Earls's parental rights after finding two statutory grounds for termination and determining that termination was in the children's best interest. The court of appeals affirmed. The Supreme Court of Arkansas reversed and remanded, and vacated the court of appeals' opinion.
Remand instructions
The matter was remanded to the Greene County Circuit Court. The opinion does not provide more specific remand instructions.