In re Michael Ray T.

A six-week-old child named Michael was hospitalized with critical injuries after enduring multiple savage attacks from rodents in his parents’ home. Fearing that Michael’s mother would go back into the rat-infested home with Michael’s sister and brother, the Department of Health and Human Services (the department) sought and received temporary custody of all three children. Michael’s sister and brother were placed in foster care in the home of Paul and Virginia Williams (plaintiffs). When Michael was released from the hospital, he was placed with the Williamses as well. After a year, the department felt it was in the children’s best interest to place them in a different foster home. Michael’s sister had had behavioral problems in the Williamses’ home, the department had needed to instruct the Williamses regarding appropriate methods of discipline, and so forth. The department moved the children to a new foster home. Paul and Virginia Williams disagreed with the children being removed from their care; thus, they moved to intervene in the children’s hearings on abuse and neglect and moved for custody. A circuit court denied both motions. The Williamses appealed, arguing that the circuit court erred in not allowing them to intervene and in not approving their motion for custody. The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals had previously ruled in favor of the intervention for foster parents in a child’s abuse and neglect proceedings because the foster parents had physical custody of the child. The question of whether former foster parents had standing to intervene in abuse and neglect proceedings of children they previously fostered was a case of first impression for the West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals.