Through the Eyes of the Child Initiative

Filed on July 23, 2010
280 Neb. 291, 785 N.W.2d 849
SUMMARY: An adjudication and permanency plan must be established before the juvenile court can accept a voluntary relinquishment from the parent.
Cornelius, DOB 5/93, was adopted by Laura in 2003. Laura moved and left Cornelius with a relative in August 2008, and on August 19, 2009, [...]

Filed on December 31, 2009
279 Neb. 81, 776 N.W.2d 519
SUMMARY: A difference in physical appearance between the parent and child or a suspicion based on infidelity are not just causes for abandonment of a child born in wedlock.  
Chance, DOB 4/17/06, was removed from the mother’s care in June 2007. On February 6, 2002, [...]

Filed on September 8, 2009
17 Neb. App. 919, 773 N.W.2d 161
SUMMARY: Termination of parental rights on the ground of abandonment and substantial neglect through incarceration was improper because there was no concrete evidence that established the length of incarceration and that the mother abandoned the child. To have records from a prior proceeding judicially [...]

Filed on June 2, 2009
768 N.W.2d 472, 17 Neb. App. 645
SUMMARY: The father did not abandon the child for purposes of 43-292 as he reasonably believed at birth that he was not the biological father of the child, had no contact with the mother or DHHS until the termination petition was filed, and made efforts [...]

Filed on March 24, 2009
Not designated for permanent publication
A-08-1153
SUMMARY: The father’s testimony as to his paternity of the child was sufficient to establish paternity. Reasonable efforts were not required to be proven in the termination of parental rights as the bases for termination were 43-292(1) and (7).  
Laquisha, DOB 3/17/97, is the child of [...]

Filed on February 24, 2009
Not designated for permanent publication
A-08-914
SUMMARY: Termination of the father’s parental rights was proper given the length of time in foster care and the absence of the father from the majority of the child’s life.  
The child, Andrea J. (DOB 8/13/95), was removed from the mother’s home in August 2003. Andre [...]

Filed on November 4, 2008
Not designated for permanent publication
A-08-422
SUMMARY: Although the father had not had contact with the child six months prior to the filing of the termination petition, he did not abandon the child as he was not included in the case for 4 years, received information he did not fully understand and was [...]

Filed on November 4, 2008
Not designated for permanent publication
A-08-210
SUMMARY: The finding of abandonment, and the resulting consent to adoption, was improper because the petitioners did not provide clear and convincing evidence to establish the father’s intent to rid himself of parenting obligations in the 6-month period prior to filing the petition.  
Rylee R., DOB 3/29/01, [...]

Filed on November 14, 2006
15 Neb. App. 179, 723 N.W.2d 652
SUMMARY: The court found that the father’s “failure to intervene, when he was provided with substandard information, [did] not constitute abandonment,” and that the father’s use of the “automatic withdrawal payment process for child support” was not “a token effort, nor [did] it someone negatively [...]

Filed on February 21, 2006
Not designated for permanent publication
Nebraska Court of Appeals, A-05-932
SUMMARY: “[T]he obligation which a parent owes to his or her children is not something which can be simply ‘phoned in’” and “[s]mall tokens of parental affection for a child are an inadequate substitute for parental presence in a child’s life.”

 
The father [...]