In re Child of Olivia F.

Summary

The Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the termination of Olivia F.’s parental rights based on statutory grounds including abandonment and parental unfitness. The court held that her failure to attend the second day of the termination hearing supported a finding of intent to forego parental duties and that the trial court properly determined termination was in the child’s best interest without deciding who would ultimately adopt the child.

Holdings

1. A parent's failure to attend a portion of a termination hearing may be considered evidence of an intent to forego parental duties, and where the parent offers no good cause for the absence, the court may find abandonment.
2. The termination judgment was supported because the mother conceded that the evidence established at least one statutory ground of parental unfitness, and a single supported ground is sufficient.
3. When a termination hearing is consolidated with a permanency-planning hearing, the court may determine both whether termination is in the child's best interest and what permanency plan should follow termination, but the identity of the child's eventual adoptive parent must be decided in a separate adoption proceeding.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the mother's failure to attend the second day of the termination hearing supported a finding that she intended to forego parental duties and had abandoned the child.
2. Whether clear and convincing evidence supported at least one statutory ground of parental unfitness.
3. Whether the District Court exceeded the scope of a termination proceeding or abused its discretion by considering the child's placement and adoption permanency plan when determining that termination was in the child's best interest.

Disposition

affirmed