Filed on February 9, 2010
18 Neb. App. 259, 778 N.W.2d 759
SUMMARY: Termination of parental rights was improper because one of the bases was N.R.S. 43-292(5) relating to the parent’s mental condition, which requires the appointment of a guardian ad litem to the parent.  
Presten O., DOB 12/05, and Porsha O., DOB 5/07, are the children [...]

Filed on January 5, 2010
Not designated for permanent publication
A-09-656
SUMMARY: The father’s ongoing alcohol use that prevents him from properly parenting and the mother’s protection of the father and failure to protect the children from him establish that it was proper to terminate the parents’ parental rights.  
Alexandria J., DOB 12/92, and Damion H., DOB 9/96 [...]

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 November 13, 2009
278 Neb. 869, 775 N.W.2d 384
SUMMARY: A parent’s past history of mental illness and ability to recover is relevant to the issues of whether the parent can be rehabilitated and whether termination is in the children’s best interests. As Neb. Rev. Stat. section 43-292(6) was not a ground alleged, the [...]

Filed on November 10, 2009
Not designated for permanent publication
A-09-505
SUMMARY: Termination was proper because the parents substantially and repeatedly neglected the children by failing to consistently visit for a substantial period of time and from refusing to comply with the case plan goals.  
The children, Yiech Y, DOB 10/94, Gach Y., DOB 6/96, Nyakueth Y., DOB [...]

Filed on November 3, 2009
Not designated for permanent publication
A-09-127 through A-09-129, A-09-227, A-09-228
SUMMARY: The absence of the guardian ad litem during the termination trial was not plain error. Because the father was not provided with a case plan until late in the case and there was little evidence establishing his failure to comply, termination [...]

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 September 1, 2009
17 Neb. App. 867, 774 N.W.2d 416
SUMMARY: In an ICWA case, active efforts should include direct guidance rather than passive referrals. The active efforts need only be culturally relevant if the conditions that led to out-of-home placement have some cultural basis. Evidence that termination is in the children’s best [...]

Filed on July 21, 2009
Not designated for permanent publication
A-09-089
SUMMARY: Grandparents no longer have a legal interest in court proceedings or a right to visitation once parents’ parental rights have been terminated, and could not intervene as foster or prospective adoptive parents as a matter of right.  
The children, Carlos, Carlynn and Joshowah, were removed from [...]

Filed on June 26, 2009
767 N.W.2d 74, 277 Neb. 984
SUMMARY: Termination of the parental rights of a deported mother was improper because the State did not prove parental unfitness especially as the mother submitted overwhelming evidence in two home studies of her fitness as a parent. The “best interest” standard does not mean finding [...]