Summary 2008 WY 15

Summary of Decision issued February 8, 2008

Summaries are prepared by Law Librarians and are not official statements of the Wyoming Supreme Court.

Case Name: DSB, minor: JA v. State, DFS

Citation: 2008 WY 15

Docket Number: S-07-0097

Appeal from the District Court of Natrona County, the Honorable Scott W. Skavdahl, Judge

Representing Appellant (Respondent): Orintha E. Karns of Brown, Drew & Massey, LLP, Casper, Wyoming.

Representing Appellee (Petitioner): Patrick J. Crank, Wyoming Attorney General; Robin Sessions Cooley, Deputy Attorney General; Jill E. Kucera, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Ellen Rutledge, Senior Assistant Attorney General; Stacey L. Obrecht, Assistant Attorney General.

Guardian Ad Litem: Mary Ann Budenske, Poverty law Center of Wyoming, Inc., Casper, Wyoming.

Facts/Discussion: JA (Mother) appealed from the juvenile court’s ruling that she neglected her minor son, DSB (child). She claimed the juvenile court did not have subject matter jurisdiction over the neglect action instituted by DFS because the adjudicatory hearing was not held within 90 days after the original petition was filed.
Appellate Jurisdiction: Mother claimed that the juvenile court lost subject matter jurisdiction over the entire neglect action because it failed to hold a hearing within 90 days of the filing of the original petition. That argument carried forward in the second case. The juvenile court recognized the continued viability of the subject matter jurisdiction issue in the second case. Therefore the Court had jurisdiction despite the fact that Mother did not file a notice of appeal of the order dismissing the first case without prejudice.
Juvenile Court’s Jurisdiction over Neglect Action: The question was whether the juvenile court lost subject matter jurisdiction over the entire neglect action when it failed to comply with the procedural requirements set forth in the statutes. The Court reviewed the juvenile court’s decision de novo. The statutory language regarding the time for holding an adjudicatory hearing is plain and unambiguous. The statutes do not include a statement of the appropriate remedy for failing to follow the statutory deadline. The Court stated that an unequivocal expression from the legislature is required before a juvenile court loses subject matter jurisdiction over a neglect action.
Remedy for Violating Statutory Deadline: By dismissing the petition without prejudice, the juvenile court placed the burden on DFS to re-file the charges and encourages parties to draw the court’s attention to a timing problem, while discouraging parents from taking actions to delay the proceedings in hopes of securing a final dismissal of the action.
Mother suggested the juvenile court’s decision violated her due process rights. Mother made no showing that the technical statutory violation restricted her efforts toward reunification with the child.

Holding: The plain language of the Child Protection Act does not unequivocally state that the juvenile court loses subject matter jurisdiction over the incident of neglect when it violates the statutory requirement that an adjudicatory hearing be held within 90 days after the petition was filed. The legislature did not state that the petition could not be dismissed without prejudice and re-filed. The juvenile court gave due attention to the 90 day deadline while still protecting the child by dismissing the petition without prejudice and giving DFS the opportunity to re-file the neglect allegations.

Affirmed.

J. Kite delivered the decision.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/yuyxay .

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