In re Livia B.L.

Summary

The Rhode Island Supreme Court affirmed a Family Court order terminating Anthony Bucci’s parental rights to Livia based on abandonment and granting Derek Gray’s petition to adopt her. The court held that legally competent evidence supported the finding that Bucci had made no reasonable effort to see or contact Livia since November 2010, and that his asserted sporadic attempts at contact were insufficient to rebut abandonment. The court also applied the clear-and-convincing-evidence standard and deferred to the trial justice’s credibility determinations.

Holdings

1. The Family Court properly found abandonment because legally competent evidence established that Bucci had no contact with Livia for more than six months and had not made reasonable efforts to see or contact her.
2. Incarceration alone is insufficient to prove abandonment, but abandonment may be established when the evidence, including the parent's conduct during incarceration, demonstrates a failure to maintain reasonable contact with the child.
3. The Family Court did not commit reversible error by failing to expressly address Bucci's testimony about cards and letters because its findings indicated that it heard and disbelieved, or found insufficient, those claimed efforts.
4. Termination of parental rights requires a finding of parental unfitness supported by clear and convincing evidence; once parental unfitness is established, the child's best interests outweigh other considerations.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Family Court clearly erred in finding by clear and convincing evidence that Bucci abandoned Livia under G.L. 1956 § 15-7-7(a)(4).
2. Whether Bucci's incarceration, claimed cards and letters, and alleged attempts to obtain visitation rebutted the prima facie evidence of abandonment.
3. Whether the Family Court's failure to expressly discuss every item of Bucci's evidence constituted a material oversight or misconception requiring reversal.
4. Whether the order granting Gray's adoption petition should be disturbed; the Supreme Court did not reach that issue because Bucci did not press it on appeal.

Disposition

affirmed