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In re Adoption of Peggy5/3/2002
Worcester.
March 7, 2002
Juvenile Court, Jurisdiction. Jurisdiction, Juvenile Court. Adoption, Dispensing with parent's consent. Parent and Child, Dispensing with parent's consent to adoption, Adoption, Custody. Minor, Adoption, Custody.
Petition filed in the Worcester Division of the Juvenile Court Department on April 9, 1999.
The case was heard by Jan L. Najemy, J.
The Supreme Judicial Court on its own initiative transferred the case from the Appeals Court.
A judge in the Worcester Division of the Juvenile Court Department adjudicated the five year old daughter, whom we shall call Peggy, of S.T. (father), an Indian national living in the Commonwealth on a temporary work visa, in need of care and protection and committed her to the permanent custody of the Department of Social Services (department), pursuant to G.L. c.119, 26. The judge also ordered the entry of a decree, pursuant to G.L. c.210, 3, dispensing with the need for the father's consent to, or notice of, any petition for the adoption of the child. The father appealed, contending that (1) the judge lacked authority to terminate the parental rights of a foreign national living in the United States on a nonimmigrant visa; (2) the judge's determination that he was an unfit parent for his daughter was based on erroneous findings of fact or improperly admitted evidence; and (3) the judge failed to comply with mandates contained in G.L. c.210, 3, in determining that the best interests of the child would be served by issuing a decree to dispense with the need for the father's consent to adoption. We transferred the appeal to this court on our own motion primarily to consider whether the Juvenile Court Department has subject matter jurisdiction over an action to terminate the parental rights of a nonimmigrant alien father to his nonimmigrant alien child. We conclude that the Juvenile Court properly exercised jurisdiction and now affirm the decree.
We first summarize the relevant procedural history. On April 9, 1999, the department filed a care and protection petition pursuant to G.L. c.119, 24, in the Juvenile Court on behalf of Peggy, then three and one-half years old, who had been admitted to the University of Massachusetts Medical Center on the previous day with numerous injuries. Counsel was appointed for the child and for the father. The department was granted temporary custody of the child. On April 12, 1999, a temporary custody hearing was held pursuant to G.L. c.119, 24, at which the department's custody of the child was continued. At that time, a court investigator was appointed, as well as a guardian ad litem for the child to determine what, if any, immediate medical treatment was in her best interest and to consent to such treatment. On January 25, 2000, the department filed a notice of intent to terminate parental rights pursuant to G.L. c.210, 3. A permanency hearing was subsequently held, pursuant to G.L. c.119, 29B, at which it was determined that adoption of the child was the goal of the department.
A trial on the department's care and protection petition was then conducted over the course of fourteen days. The judge entered a decision containing detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The judge found that the father was unfit to assume parental responsibility for his daughter, that his unfitness was likely to continue into the indefinite future, and that it was in the best interests of the child to terminate the father's parental rights. The judge also determined that an adoption plan proposed by the department served the child's best interests. A decree was issued dispensing with the need for the father's consent to, or notice o
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