In The Interest of KCB, a Child

In a 2008 per curiam opinion by the Texas Supreme Court, in the case of In The Interest of KCB, a Child, No. 07-1068 (Tex. Apr. 18, 2008), the court held that the Parent was entitled to review on the merits in appeal from order terminating parental rights, and that the omission of statement listing points of errors from appellate record was not parent's fault. The opinion stated that:

"As a prerequisite to appellate review, the Texas Family Code requires a party whose parental rights have been terminated to timely file with the trial court a statement of points on which the party intends to appeal. Tex. Fam. Code § 263.405(b), (i).[1] The petitioner in this case timely filed such a statement and designated it for inclusion in the clerk’s record, but the statement was omitted from the record that was filed with the appellate court. Concluding that the petitioner had failed to comply with the Family Code, the court of appeals affirmed the trial court’s judgment without addressing the merits. 240 S.W.3d 454, 455. The court of appeals denied the petitioner’s subsequent request to supplement the record and motion for rehearing. Id. We hold that the petitioner complied with the statutory requirements for appeal and that the court of appeals erred in denying her request to supplement the record on rehearing. Accordingly, we reverse the court of appeals’ judgment and remand the case for consideration of petitioner’s appeal on the merits."

The appeals court denied the review on a matter of technicality, however, the Texas Supreme Court reasoned that: "Given the constitutional dimensions of the “fundamental liberty interest of natural parents in the care, custody, and management of their child,” Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 745, 753 (1982), justice is not served when a case like this, ripe for determination on the merits, is decided on “a procedural technicality” that can easily be corrected, Silk, 898 S.W.2d at 766."