In Re JK

A judge in the Family Division of the Kent Circuit Court terminated the respondent mother’s parental rights to her three-year-old son after concluding that there were attachment and bonding problems between the respondent and the child. Following an unsuccessful appeal to the Court of Appeals, respondent filed a timely application for leave to appeal in this Court. While that application was pending, unknown to this Court, the family division of the circuit court engaged in the apparently unprecedented and extraordinary action of allowing the foster parents to adopt the child. 1 Again,…