In re A.N. and C.N.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia reviewed an abuse and neglect proceeding involving a father’s parental rights to two children. The court affirmed termination of the father’s parental rights as to A.N., but reversed the circuit court’s decision to return C.N. to the father’s care, custody, and control, remanding for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The circuit court properly terminated the father's parental rights to A.N. because clear and convincing evidence showed that A.N. suffered a nonaccidental injury while in the father's custody, the father failed to explain or accept responsibility for the injury, the conditions of abuse and neglect were not reasonably correctable, and termination was necessary for A.N.'s welfare.
2. The circuit court did not err by denying the father's request for a post-dispositional improvement period.
3. The circuit court plainly erred by allowing the father to retain full parental rights and by returning C.N. to his custody without adequately resolving the court's contradictory findings or developing evidence concerning the father's parental fitness and the child's safety.
4. On remand, the circuit court must immediately monitor the father's current custody of C.N., develop an intensive treatment plan, direct DHHR monitoring, and provide a gradual transition if C.N. is removed from the father's custody.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the circuit court erred by terminating the father's parental rights to A.N. despite allowing him to retain parental rights to C.N.
2. Whether the evidence established that there was no reasonable likelihood that the conditions of abuse and neglect could be substantially corrected and that termination of the father's parental rights to A.N. was necessary for her welfare.
3. Whether the circuit court erred by denying the father's request for a post-dispositional improvement period.
4. Whether the circuit court plainly erred by returning C.N. to the father's custody without adequately evaluating the father's parental fitness, the child's treatment needs, and the safety of the placement.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded