SUMMARY: Juvenile court gave collateral estoppel effect to the findings in siblings proceeding that parents had failed to provide proper parental care.
Parents of Jaden H. had parental rights to two other children (Destiny and Suede) terminated under §43-247(3)(a) in a previous proceeding. The State used the prior factual determination that Destiny and Suede lacked proper parental care as the basis for termination of parental rights to Jaden. On appeal, the Court of Appeals of Nebraska recited evidence that the children suffered from direct and repeated blows, malnourishment and posttraumatic stress disorder from abuse. The State filed a petition to adjudicate Jaden and terminate parental rights to Jaden under § 43-292(2) within one week of the court affirming the order for Destiny and Suede. Under § 43-292(2), parental rights can be terminated when parents have substantially and continuously or repeatedly neglected and refused to give necessary parental care and protection to a sibling of the child at issue. The State’s motion asserted that the allegations in the second amended petition regarding Jaden were substantially the same allegations made in the Destiny and Suede proceeding.
The parents filed timely motions for new a trial which asserted, among other things, that the order in the Destiny and Suede proceeding was not a final order for res judicata purposes because a mandate from the appellate court had not been issued. The Court of Appeals opinion affirming the lower court’s decision in the Destiny and Suede proceeding was issued a week before the juvenile court entered partial summary judgment in Jaden’s case. The court concluded that the juvenile court was correct to give collateral estoppel effect to the findings in the Destiny and Suede proceeding that the parents had failed to provide proper parental care and the evidence was clear and convincing from the previous proceeding. All four prerequisites for collateral estoppel were detailed in the opinion. The juvenile court erred in entering partial summary judgment but the error was harmless because the evidence in the Destiny and Suede proceeding offered in the summary judgment proceeding was unquestionably admissible at a trial and it conclusively established the lack of proper parental care of Jaden. The court found no reversible error.