In an unpublished opinion, DYFS v. J.M., the Appellate Division has created a significant loophole in the notion, first established in DYFS v. G.M., that the offending parent is entitled to a dispositional hearing once he or she has remedied the harm that commenced the litigation.
In J.M., the Appellate Division upheld a trial court’s decision to terminate litigation once the father had performed all services to address an act of excessive corporal punishment. During dependency of the case, custody had been transferred to the mother.
At the end of the case, everyone agreed that the father had addressed the issue. However, because the father has lost his job and was not able to be neatly resume custody of the child, the case was closed.
The Appellate Division affirmed the trial court’s decision to close litigation and noted that, once the father obtained stable housing, he could apply for custody any non-dissolution (FD) proceeding. Of course, this ruling leaves open a series of questions.
Normally, once the parent has addressed the division’s concerns, the pre-litigation custody arrangement is reinstated. In this case, that could not yet happened.
But, what happens when the father does obtain housing? Will the custody arrangement then resume based upon the father filing an FD action? Or, will the father have to prove a change of circumstances, because the Appellate Division directed him to file a “custody action”? What a significant amount of time passes between this Appellate Division decision and the time when father obtains employment?
One could argue that the passage of time that the child has been with the mother constitutes a change of circumstances. However, isn’t that what typically happens during the pendency of a protracted, DCPP case, which usually lasts about one year? The parent is still entitled to have the prior arrangement reinstated. Why, in this case, is the father required to file a new matter for custody?
It appears that this is yet another circumstance in child welfare law where the rules implemented are inconsistent with long – established family law principles.
Another area is in foster parent litigation. We know that foster parent bonding, in and of itself, is not sufficient to warrant a custody application by the foster parents with the child has been in their care for several years.
Yet, when that same child had been placed into the custody of a relative by the parent for a period as lengthy, that relative could have filed for custody, premised upon being the psychological parent of the child. See, V.C. v. M.J.B.
Because of the policy of family reunification between parent and child, trumping the emotional pull of a foster parent, we gloss over that psychological bond between the child and the foster parent to serve what our society says is a superior goal.
Perhaps that is what the J.M. appellate court also sought to accomplish – namely, to support stability for a child as between his biological parents.
In that sense, the father’s unemployment and inability to provide stable housing, inadvertently, led to a de facto change in custody as in the Ohloff decision – and hence, after the “test period” time has passed, a new application to modify custody must be filed.
It is uncertain the reasoning behind this decision; however, its vague directives leave much argument for future litigation for this family.
What is clear from the decision, notably, is that DYFS (DCPP) is not required to be involved at that point – to assist with financing father reunification or otherwise. And as economic times continue to remain dismal, it is likely that similar decisions will be entered by the Appellate Division in the future, shifting the burden to parents to remedy child welfare concerns promptly or risk losing the agencies assistance with restoring the family unit altogether.
Defense counsel should be mindful to address this issue with parents as child welfare litigation unfolds and life circumstances may hamper and ultimate reunification, through no fault of the parent or the division.
