In re M.D.

Summary

The Ninth District Court of Appeals affirmed a Lorain County Juvenile Court judgment placing M.D. in the legal custody of a maternal aunt and uncle. The court held that, following an abuse, neglect, and dependency adjudication, the legal-custody determination is based on the child’s best interest and does not require a separate finding of parental unsuitability under In re Perales. The court concluded that the decision was supported by the evidence, including the mother’s limited case-plan progress, prior termination of parental rights, and the child’s stable placement with the relatives.

Holdings

1. Because Mother did not raise the alleged Perales error in her objections to the magistrate's decision, she forfeited all but plain error on appeal, and she did not articulate a plain-error argument.
2. The common-law requirement that a court find a parent unsuitable before awarding legal custody to a nonparent does not apply in an abuse, neglect, and dependency case after the child has been adjudicated abused, neglected, or dependent. In that circumstance, the legal-custody determination is based solely on the child's best interest.
3. The award of legal custody of M.D. to the maternal aunt and uncle was in M.D.'s best interest and was not against the manifest weight of the evidence.
4. A parent's case-plan progress is not dispositive of the child's best interest and does not itself require reunification or an extension of temporary custody.

Questions Presented

1. Whether Mother forfeited, absent plain error, her argument that the trial court was required to find her unsuitable under In re Perales before awarding legal custody to nonparents.
2. Whether the Perales parental-unsuitability standard applies in an abuse, neglect, and dependency proceeding after the child has been adjudicated abused, neglected, or dependent.
3. Whether the juvenile court's award of legal custody to the maternal aunt and uncle was in M.D.'s best interest and was supported by the manifest weight of the evidence.
4. Whether Mother's progress on the case plan required reunification or an extension of temporary custody.

Disposition

affirmed