People v. M.L., 2016 CO 39

Summary

The Colorado Supreme Court considers whether adjudicating a child dependent or neglected under the injurious-environment provision requires examining each parent's conduct, ability, availability, and willingness to provide reasonable parental care. The court holds that neither the Colorado dependency-or-neglect statute nor Troxel v. Granville requires proof of parental fault or that both parents lack the ability or willingness to provide care at the adjudicatory stage. It reverses the court of appeals and remands for consideration of the remaining appellate issue.

Holdings

1. Troxel's due process requirements do not require the State to prove that both parents lack the availability, ability, or willingness to provide reasonable parental care before a child may be adjudicated dependent or neglected under section 19-3-102(1)(c).
2. Section 19-3-102(1)(c) and Troxel do not require the State to prove parental fault or require the jury to make findings as to parental fault before adjudicating a child dependent or neglected based on an injurious environment.
3. The trial court did not err by giving an instruction that tracked the statutory language and asked whether each child's environment was injurious to the child's welfare without requiring a parental-fault finding.

Questions Presented

1. Whether due process under Troxel v. Granville requires the State, at the adjudicatory stage of a dependency-or-neglect proceeding based on an injurious environment, to prove that both parents are unavailable, unable, or unwilling to provide reasonable parental care.
2. Whether section 19-3-102(1)(c), Colorado Revised Statutes, or Troxel requires findings of parental fault before a child may be adjudicated dependent or neglected based on an injurious environment.
3. Whether the trial court's jury instruction tracking the statutory injurious-environment language was legally proper.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded