In re Angela V.

Syllabus

The respondent mother appealed to this court from the judgments of the trial court adjudicating her minor children neglected. On appeal, the mother claimed that the court violated her rights to due process when it denied a motion for permission to call the two older children as witnesses that had been filed by the respondent father. Specifically, the mother claimed that the trial court employed an improper standard of proof when it denied the motion in part on the ground that it would not be in the ''best interests'' of the children. Held that the respondent mother's appeal was dismissed as moot, as the mother failed to challenge all of the bases for the trial court's denial of the motion for permission to call the children as witnesses: the record is clear that the court relied on two grounds in denying the motion, that it was not in the best interests of the children and that it was untimely and, as the mother failed to challenge this second independent basis for the court's decision denying the motion, this court could not afford her any practical relief; moreover, this court declined the mother's request to vacate that part of the trial court's judgment that found that it would not be in the best interests of the children to testify in order to clarify the correct legal standard that should be employed by the Superior Court in adjudicating motions for child testimony in a neglect proceeding, the mother having provided no authority that would permit this court to use the equitable remedy of vacatur to essentially render an advisory opinion in an appeal that was otherwise moot. Argued March 23—officially released May 17, 2021