Summary
The Montana Supreme Court affirmed the termination of L.B.'s parental rights based on abandonment. The court held that L.B.'s failure to parent or visit her children for more than six years supported a reasonable belief that she did not intend to resume their care, and that a court-approved treatment plan was not required after a finding of abandonment.
Topics
Practice areas
Questions Presented
- Whether the District Court erred by terminating L.B.'s parental rights on the ground that she had abandoned her children.
- Whether the State was required to provide L.B. with a court-approved treatment plan before seeking termination of her parental rights.
Holdings
- The District Court did not err in terminating L.B.'s parental rights because her failure to parent or visit the children for more than six years, together with her minimal efforts after the termination proceedings began, made reasonable the belief that she did not intend to resume their care.
- A court-approved treatment plan is not required when parental rights are terminated on the statutory ground of abandonment.
- A termination-of-parental-rights decision is reviewed for clear error as to factual findings and correctness as to legal conclusions.
Key quotations
“We have long recognized that a natural parent’s right to care and custody of a child is a fundamental liberty interest, which must be protected by fundamentally fair procedures.” (305 Mont. at 434)
“A treatment plan is not required upon a finding by the court that the parent has abandoned the child.” (305 Mont. at 435)
Factual background
L.B. gave custody of her two children to their father in 1993 so that she could enter a chemical-dependency program, and she had not parented them since February 1994. She moved to Oregon and had no contact with the children for nearly six years, including during the final year when the children were in the custody of the Department of Public Health and Human Services. L.B. contacted the Department in April 2000, signed case-plan recommendations in June 2000, and attended the termination hearing, but had not begun work on any of the recommendations and had not resumed meaningful contact with the children.
Procedural history
The District Court for the Eighth Judicial District, Cascade County, terminated L.B.'s parental rights after finding that she had abandoned her children. The court held that a treatment plan was not required because abandonment was an independent statutory ground for termination. L.B. appealed, and the Montana Supreme Court affirmed.