In re Mattie L.

Summary

The Tennessee Supreme Court reviewed a parental-rights termination judgment based on alleged abandonment by failure to support and visit. The Court held that the missing witness rule may apply in a non-jury trial but operates only as a permissive inference, and that the trial court misapplied it. The Court also held that the doctrine of unclean hands did not apply to the father and that the evidence of abandonment was not clear and convincing, reversing the termination judgment and dismissing the petition.

Holdings

1. The missing witness rule may apply in both jury and non-jury trials because the trier of fact, whether a jury or judge, may draw a permissible inference from a party's failure to testify.
2. The missing witness rule creates only a permissive inference, not a presumption, and cannot replace substantive evidence or relieve a claimant of the burden to establish a prima facie case.
3. The doctrine of unclean hands did not apply to Father because he was defending against a petition for statutory relief, seeking no equitable remedy, and the alleged misrepresentations were collateral to the abandonment issue.
4. Mother and stepfather failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Father willfully failed to support the child or make reasonable or consistent support payments during the relevant four-month period.
5. Mother and stepfather failed to prove by clear and convincing evidence that Father willfully failed to visit the child.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the missing witness rule may apply in a non-jury trial.
2. Whether the trial court properly applied the missing witness rule by presuming that Father's entire testimony would have been unfavorable.
3. Whether the doctrine of unclean hands applied to Father when he was defending against a statutory parental-termination petition and seeking no equitable relief.
4. Whether Mother's and stepfather's evidence clearly and convincingly established abandonment by Father's willful failure to support or make reasonable or consistent support payments.
5. Whether Mother's and stepfather's evidence clearly and convincingly established abandonment by Father's willful failure to visit.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded