In Re Travis W.

Summary

The Supreme Court of West Virginia affirmed the circuit court's finding that Steve W. abandoned his son Travis W., but reversed the termination of his parental rights and remanded for a proper disposition hearing because the court proceeded immediately from adjudication to disposition without the notice of a disposition hearing mandated by Rule 31 and without satisfying Rule 32's prerequisites for an accelerated disposition (party agreement, a compliant child's case plan or waiver, and notice or waiver). The court held the absence of a newly filed child's case plan in the successor petition was not reversible error because a substantially identical plan filed in the dismissed companion case had been copied to all parties and remained in effect, though the better practice is to file a plan in every action. The court also held the father's objection was preserved under Rule 46 despite the lack of opportunity for a contemporaneous objection, and that the evidence supported the abandonment finding under the clear-error standard.