In re D'Andre T

Syllabus

The respondent mother appealed to this court from the judgments of the trial court terminating her parental rights as to her two minor children and denying her motion to transfer guardianship of them to her sister, B. The trial court determined that, pursuant to statute (§ 17a-112 (j) (3) (B) (i)), the respondent had failed to achieve such a degree of personal rehabilitation as would encourage the belief that within a reasonable time she could assume a responsible position in the children's lives. The court also found that it was not in the children's best interests to transfer guardianship of them to B, as B was not a suitable guardian in light of her having allowed one of the children to be in the respondent's care in contravention of directives by the Department of Children and Families. On appeal, the mother claimed that the trial court denied her a fundamentally fair proceeding by treating her motion to transfer guardianship with less regard than the petitions to terminate her parental rights. She further claimed that this court should exercise its supervisory authority over the administration of justice to require the Superior Court to make certain written findings in all cases in which a court is consider- ing a transfer of guardianship motion and a petition to terminate parental rights concurrently. Held: 1. This court had jurisdiction over the respondent mother's appeal, which presented an actual, justiciable controversy, notwithstanding the asser- tion by the petitioner, the Commissioner of Children and Families, that the appeal should be dismissed because the mother's request for a new procedural rule was not tethered to any actual controversy and she did not claim that the trial court erred in its decisions on the termination petitions or the motion to transfer guardianship; in light of the mother's contention that the trial court's failure to rule on her motion to transfer guardianship prior to ruling on the termination of parental rights peti- tions cr