SANTA FE – The state Supreme Court today provided guidance to district courts that limits who can be added as a party to an abuse and neglect case.
In a unanimous opinion, the Court narrowed the scope of a procedural rule that allowed children’s courts to bring “any other person” into an abuse and neglect case as a party to the legal proceeding — a process known as joinder.
Under the rule, the parties in an abuse and neglect proceeding are the allegedly abused or neglected child, the child’s parent or guardian, the Children, Youth and Families Department, which operates the state’s foster care system, and “any other person made a party by the court.” Children’s courts are district courts that handle cases involving youth under 18 years of age, including abuse and neglect, adoption and juvenile criminal matters.
The justices determined that the “any other person” language of the rule was “so broad as to offer no obvious limitation” and it could lead to “absurd results” of bringing in parties with no relevant relationship to an abused or neglected child.
The justices adopted a “necessary-party standard” for children’s courts to follow in determining whether an individual, agency or other entity should be made a party to an abuse and neglect case to help resolve the matter consistent with the public policy of serving the best interests of the child.
“Limiting joinder under the Rule to those parties necessary to serve the child’s best interests precludes absurd results while ensuring the ability of the children’s court to join such necessary parties in unique or unforeseeable circumstances,” the Court wrote in an opinion by Justice C. Shannon Bacon.
The Court directed one of its rules committees to amend the rule governing joinder of parties in abuse and neglect cases – Rule 10-121(B)(4) – to incorporate the necessary-party standard reflected in a separate procedural rule for civil cases in district courts.
Today’s decision came in an appeal by Presbyterian Health Plan, Inc., (PHP) of a children’s court decision to make the health insurer a party in a proceeding involving a child who contended that he needed treatment foster care. PHP was the child’s managed care organization for Medicaid health care services.
The justices ordered the case back to the children’s court to apply the new standard and determine whether PHP “owed legal obligations to the Child sufficient” to make it a necessary party in the proceeding.
###
To read the decision in State ex rel. CYFD v. Calvin T., No. S-1-SC-40347, please visit the New Mexico Compilation Commission’s website using the following link:
