Opinion
No. 91-1255.
September 10, 1991.
Appeal from the Circuit Court for Dade County, D. Bruce Levy, J.
Richard A. Sherman and Rosemary B. Wilder, Fort Lauderdale, Gail L. Grossman, Miami, for appellant.
Robin H. Greene, Helen L. Stone, Miami, for appellee.
Before BASKIN, JORGENSON and LEVY, JJ.
We reverse the final judgment terminating parental rights because the record demonstrates that the Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services did not give notice of the March 15, 1991 dispositional hearing as required by statute. A person required to be served with notice as prescribed by section 39.462(1)(a), Florida Statutes (1989), is entitled to notice of hearings. § 39.462(1)(b), Fla. Stat. (1989). Failure to furnish appellant notice of the disposition hearing rendered the entry of the judgment terminating her parental rights improper.
Reversed and remanded.
BASKIN and LEVY, JJ., concur.
I agree with the result reached by the majority. I write specially because, in my view, the trial court should have proceeded to trial on counsel's representations that she was ready to proceed on behalf of the mother. This case has been mishandled by HRS from the outset, and the result is that the child must spend still another year in a foster home.