California Court of Appeal Jan 6, 2023 No. E079042Unpublished
Filed 1/6/23 In re R.D. CA4/2
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS California Rules of Court, rule 8.1115(a), prohibits courts and parties from citing or relying on opinions not certified for publication or ordered published, except as specified by rule 8.1115(b). This opinion has not been certified for publication or ordered published for purposes of rule 8.1115.
IN THE COURT OF APPEAL OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA
FOURTH APPELLATE DISTRICT
DIVISION TWO
In re R.D., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.
RIVERSIDE COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SOCIAL SERVICES, E079042
Plaintiff and Respondent, (Super.Ct.No. RIJ2000454)
v. OPINION
B.F. et al.,
Defendants and Appellants.
APPEAL from the Superior Court of Riverside County. Cheryl C. Murphy, Judge.
Conditionally reversed with directions.
Donna P. Chirco, by appointment of the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and
Appellant, B.F.
Jesse McGowan, by appointment of the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and
Appellant, C.D.
1
Minh C. Tran, Teresa K.B. Beecham and Melinda H. Frey, Deputy County
Counsel, for Plaintiff and Respondent.
I. INTRODUCTION
R.D. was detained and removed from her parents, B.F. (Mother) and C.D.
(Father), shortly after birth. The juvenile court terminated Mother’s and Father’s parental
compliance cannot always easily obtain the missing information, even when that missing
information is about a parent’s possible Indian ancestry.”].) If a parent’s statement under
penalty of perjury that he or she has no knowledge of Native American ancestry is
insufficient to relieve the department of its statutory duty of inquiry, we see no reason
why a subsequent stipulation signed by a parent could be interpreted to have that effect.3
3 Indeed, at least one appellate court has conditionally reversed an order for failure to conduct an adequate inquiry, despite a signed stipulation that ICWA did not apply. (See In re E.V. (2022) 80 Cal.App.5th 691, 695, 701.)
7
Thus, the fact that Mother and Father disclaimed knowledge of Native American
ancestry did not absolve the department of its initial duty of inquiry, which included the
obligation to make reasonable attempts to contact extended family members for the
purpose of gathering information potentially relevant to R.D.’s status as an Indian child.
Where multiple extended family members are known to the department but the record
does not show any attempt to contact them for the purpose of making an ICWA inquiry,
the record does not support a finding that the department discharged its initial duty under
ICWA.
C. The Failure To Conduct an Inquiry Was Not Harmless
The department also argues that, even if it failed to fulfill its duty of inquiry, any
such failure should be deemed harmless. We disagree.
We acknowledge that the standard of prejudice requiring reversal in cases
involving ICWA is unsettled in the Court of Appeal. (In re Antonio R., supra,
76 Cal.App.5th at p.433 [“Courts of Appeal are divided as to whether a parent must make
an affirmative showing of prejudice to support reversal . . . .”].) However, this court has
adopted the standard of prejudice articulated in Benjamin M., supra, 70 Cal.App.5th 735,
which rejects both an automatic rule of reversal or a rule that places the burden squarely
on the parents to show the likelihood of obtaining a more favorable result (id. at pp. 743-
745). Instead, we explained that reversal is required “where the record indicates that
8
there was readily obtainable information that was likely to bear meaningfully upon
whether the child is an Indian child.” (Id. at p. 744.)4
The department argues that this case fails to meet the standard of prejudice
articulated in Benjamin M., relying principally on In re Y.M. (2022) 82 Cal.App.5th 901
(In re Y.M.), where the Court of Appeal concluded that a child welfare agency’s failure to
conduct an adequate inquiry under ICWA was harmless because the record did not
suggest any information would bear meaningfully on whether the dependent child was an
Indian child (id. at pp. 916-918). Specifically, the record in In re Y.M. identified three
family members whom the child welfare agency failed to interview— a paternal
grandfather, paternal grandmother, and paternal uncle. (In re Y.M., supra, at pp. 906-
907.) However, the Court of Appeal observed that all of these individuals had strong
incentives to voluntarily provide whatever relevant information they might have had
because the paternal grandfather had affirmatively sought placement of the dependent
child in his home and because the dependent child’s father lived with the paternal
grandmother and paternal uncle. (Id. at pp. 917-918.) Given these facts, the Court of
Appeal concluded there was a strong inference that these family members did not have
information that would bear meaningfully on the question of whether the dependent child
was an Indian child. (Id. at p. 918.)
4 In adopting this standard of prejudice, this court expressly disagreed with the standard of prejudice articulated in In re A.C. (2021) 65 Cal.App.5th 1060. (Benjamin M., supra, 70 Cal.App.5th at p. 745.) Accordingly, we decline to adopt the department’s suggestion that we should apply the standard of prejudice articulated in that case.
9
In our view, the facts of In re Y.M. are distinguishable from those presented in this
case. It is true that, in this case, Mother and Father lived with the maternal grandmother
for some time, and the paternal grandmother had been in contact with the department in
order to be assessed for placement. However, the record in this case also suggests there
were multiple other relatives that should have been contacted for the purpose of
conducting an ICWA inquiry, including a maternal great-grandmother and maternal
grand uncles. While the maternal grandmother reported a close relationship with these
relatives, there was no indication in the record that Mother reported a similar relationship
or that any of these relatives had any incentive to voluntarily provide information to the
department regarding potential Native American ancestry. Thus, In re Y.M. is
distinguishable on its facts.
The department also argues that under In re S.S. (2022) 75 Cal.App.5th 575 and In
re J.W. (2022) 81 Cal.App.5th 384, any failure to conduct a proper inquiry under ICWA
was harmless because, ultimately, the maternal grandmother was deemed R.D.’s
prospective adoptive parent. In both of these decisions, the appellate courts concluded
that a failure to inquire was harmless because, even if the dependent child had been found
to be an Indian child, the ICWA contains a statutory preference for adoptive placement of
an Indian child with an extended family member. (In re S.S., at p. 582; In re J.W., at
pp. 390-391.) We respectfully disagree with the reasoning in these cases.
It is true that Title 25 United State Code section 1915 provides, in part, that “[i]n
any adoptive placement of an Indian child under State law, a preference shall be given, in
the absence of good cause to the contrary, to a placement with (1) a member of the
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child’s extended family; (2) other members of the Indian child’s tribe; or (3) other Indian
families.” (25 U.S.C. § 1915(a).) However, subsection (c) of that same statute also
provides that, “[i]n the case of a placement under subsection (a) or (b) of this section, if
the Indian child’s tribe shall establish a different order of preference by resolution, the
agency or court effecting the placement shall follow such order . . . .” (25 U.S.C.
§ 1915(c).) Unless a proper inquiry is conducted, a reviewing court has no reason to
conclude that the dependent child is an Indian child in the first instance. Further, any
potential tribe with an interest in a dependent child will not have notice of the
proceedings and cannot intervene to inform the juvenile court whether the tribe has
established a different order of preference for placement. Thus, where the child welfare
agency has failed to conduct an adequate ICWA inquiry, we see no basis to conclude that
the placement preference set forth in Title 25 United States Code section 1915(a) will
apply, and the statute cannot be relied upon to find any error harmless.5
In considering the prejudicial effect of a social services agency’s failure to
discharge its duty of inquiry under the ICWA, this court has repeatedly held that the
5 Further, we cannot assume that any specific family member will always have an incentive to disclose Native American ancestry. As observed by our colleagues in In re J.C. (2022) 77 Cal.App.5th 70, it is equally possible that, “[a]s the prospective adoptive parent, the grandmother’s incentive would be not to provide any information suggesting the child was an Indian child, so that she could adopt the child without any potential interference from the tribe.” (Id. at p. 84.) Certainly, this would be the case if the prospective adoptive family member is aware of potential tribal membership but is also aware the relevant tribe has established a different order of preference for placement. This may also be the case where the prospective adoptive family member has knowledge that a different family member belongs to a different tribe with a stronger interest in the dependent child.
11
failure to comply with an initial duty of inquiry is deemed prejudicial in the absence of
information in the record to suggest otherwise. (In re K.R. (2018) 20 Cal.App.5th 701,
709; In re N.G. (2018) 27 Cal.App.5th 474, 484; Benjamin M., supra, 70 Cal.App.5th at
pp. 744-745.) As we have previously explained: “Where the record does not show what,
if any, efforts the agency made to discharge its duty of inquiry [citations], . . . the burden
of making an adequate record demonstrating the court’s and the agency’s efforts to
comply with ICWA’s inquiry and notice requirements must fall squarely and
affirmatively on the court and the agency”; and, “as a general rule, we will find the
appellant’s claims of ICWA error prejudicial and reversible.” (In re N.G., at p. 484.)
Here, the record contains no indication that the department made efforts to contact
known extended family members for the purpose of conducting an initial ICWA inquiry.
Given such a silent record, under the general rule we expressed in In re N.G., supra,
27 Cal.App.5th 474 we cannot conclude the department’s failure to comply with its initial
duty of inquiry under ICWA was harmless.
D. We Decline to Consider Postjudgment Evidence
Finally, on September 26, 2022, the department filed a motion to augment the
record and dismiss the appeal as moot on the basis of postjudgment evidence.
Specifically, the department requests that we consider the declaration of a social worker,
stating that a subsequent ICWA inquiry had been conducted with the paternal
grandmother, paternal grandfather, and maternal grandmother, which resulted in all three
completing ICWA-020 forms disclaiming any knowledge of Native American ancestry.
For the reasons set forth below, we deny the motion.
12
First, in a recently published decision, this court expressly disapproved of the very
procedure the department has used here to seek dismissal of the appeal. (In re Ricky R.
(2022) 82 Cal.App.5th 671, 680-683.) As we explained in that decision, a postappeal
declaration by a social worker is not the proper subject of judicial notice, augmentation,
or consideration under Code of Civil Procedure section 909. (Id. at pp. 681-682.)
While postjudgment evidence can sometimes be relevant to a determination of
whether an appeal is moot or any alleged error is harmless, a finding that ICWA does not
apply is a factual determination that should be made by the juvenile court in the first
instance. As we explained in In re Ricky R., supra, 82 Cal.App.5th 671, when further
ICWA inquiries have been conducted resulting in additional information, the appropriate
procedure is for the department to “stipulate to a conditional ICWA reversal and an
immediate issuance of the remittitur. [Citation.] That way, the juvenile court may make
ICWA findings on the basis of the new evidence, and there is no question about its
jurisdiction.” (Ricky R., at p. 683; see In re M.B. (2022) 80 Cal.App.5th 617, 629 [“[T]he
Department’s proper course of action was to stipulate to a conditional reversal with
directions for full compliance with the inquiry and notice provisions of ICWA and related
California law . . . .”].)
Second, as we have already explained above, the record in this case indicates that
the extended family members who were readily available for the department to conduct
an ICWA inquiry include a maternal great-grandmother and two maternal grand uncles.
The proffered postjudgment evidence offered by the department in support of its motion
is silent as to these individuals. Thus, the department’s proffered postjudgment evidence
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is, at best, incomplete with respect to the very issue on which it asks this court to make a
factual determination under Code of Civil Procedure section 909. Under the
circumstances, we do not believe it would be an appropriate exercise of discretion to
consider such evidence for the purpose of making factual findings. (Philippine Exp. &
Foreign Loan Guar. Corp. v. Chuidian (1990) 218 Cal.App.3d 1058, 1090 [“The power
to take evidence in the Court of Appeal is never used where there is conflicting evidence
in the record . . . .”].) We, therefore, deny the department’s motion to augment the record
and deny its motion to dismiss.
IV. DISPOSITION
The motion filed September 26, 2022, to augment the record, consider
postjudgment evidence, and dismiss the appeal is denied.
The order terminating Mother’s and Father’s parental rights is conditionally
reversed. The matter is remanded to the juvenile court with directions to comply with the
inquiry provisions of ICWA and of Welfare and Institutions Code sections 224.2 and
224.3. If, after completing the initial inquiry, neither the department nor the juvenile
court has reason to believe or reason to know that R.D. is an Indian child, the order
terminating parental rights shall be reinstated. If, however, the department or the juvenile
court discovers a reason to believe that R.D. is an Indian child, the court shall proceed
accordingly.
NOT TO BE PUBLISHED IN OFFICIAL REPORTS
FIELDS J.
14
We concur:
MILLER Acting P. J.
CODRINGTON J.
15
AI Brief
AI-generated · verify before citing
Holding. The court conditionally reversed the termination of parental rights because the Department failed to fulfill its initial duty of inquiry under the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) by neglecting to interview available extended family members.
Issues
Did the Department fulfill its initial duty of inquiry under ICWA by failing to contact known extended family members?
Is a parent's disclaimer of Native American ancestry sufficient to relieve the Department of its duty to inquire of other available relatives?
Is the failure to conduct an adequate ICWA inquiry harmless when the record does not show efforts to contact known extended family members?
Disposition. conditionally reversed
Quotations verified verbatim against the opinion
“the record does not support a finding that the department fulfilled its duty of inquiry under the ICWA, and conditionally reverse the order terminating parental rights.”