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A Broward father lost all rights to his daughter after being declared an unfit dad. Now he is dead, and a court is reconsidering whether to restore his parental rights.
In life, he was a lousy father. His love for the crack pipe was mightier than the love for his children, a Broward judge decided, and ended his parental rights to his pre-teen daughter.
But before his appeal of the judge’s order was final, the father known in court records as C.A. died when he was hit by a car. And now, an appeals court is wondering: perhaps the little girl should keep her father, after all.
A Broward County court is set to consider restoring a dead man’s parental rights to his now 13-year-old daughter, so she might be able to receive part of a possible payout from a lawsuit over his death…
Child welfare legal experts…say the ruling appears to be the first time a Florida judge has been asked to restore a parent’s rights after death.
“Obviously, this case presents challenges that we haven’t dealt with yet,” Judge Frusciante said.
Where is Solomon when you really need him?
Easy. He is a deadbeat when alive, but when he is dead he is a gold mine.
just follow the money, that’s all a dad is good for.. hhmmm
That’s a wierd situation. I don’t know why they would have to restore his rights for her to collect a settlement? You can lose custody of your kids and still be responsible for child support.
The only party to benefit from this is the insurance companies legal staff that would win an appeal.
Termination of parental rights is far more extreme than loss of custody. When parental rights are terminated, the legal parent-child relationship is eliminated, and the two people are legally strangers. Therefore, the daughter has no legal claim on the guy’s estate as his offspring because legally she is not his offspring. The appeals court has a problem because it must rule on whether the original trial court correctly applied the law to terminate the parental rights, which from the facts we have here, looks like what they would have to rule. But if the appeals courts upholds the termination of parental rights, it cuts one of the dead man’s two natural children out of any wrongful death settlement his estate might obtain. This seems like an unfair outcome resulting from the proper application of the law.
What bothers me more is the observation, by the agency’s lead attorney, that the Florida Department of Children & Families is the one pushing the dead man’s estate to start a wrongful death lawsuit against the person who ran over the father, on the justification that if they can get the termination of parental rights vacated and get a settlement in the wrongful death case, it will be to the benefit of their ward. I don’t like the idea of the state colluding with a private citizen to initiate a law suit for which the state has no standing itself.
It probably varies from state to state but “normally” rights are separated from duties. Terminating the duties of a bad dad would only encourage more bad dad’s to up the volume to 11.
Most such family actions are all based on whats in the best interest of the child. As such, yes, “rights” should be more easily terminated while duties only increased–aka==pay for the kid.
To that end, I’d bet with no facts, knowledge, or interest that the “state lawyer” is actually the kid advocate doing what only makes sense.
And the case isn’t even final===I don’t see anything wacky at all.
#5, Kevin,
My understanding that until a court’s determination becomes final, there is no final decision. Since the father appealed the original decision, he has not lost his rights yet. With his death those rights would (or should) remain intact since he is no longer capable of disputing anything the State could accuse him of. The final disposition should be a dismissal.
He’ll probably end up on the ‘bad father’ list again. Ya know, sending the child to school without lunch money, not enforcing curfews, laying around the house all day and not even trying to find a job. Especially since there are plenty of jobs available as a zombie movie extra!