Matter of Delaney

OPALA, Justice:

The question to be answered is whether the trial court erred when it refused to vacate as void its prior order by which the children of a legally incompetent mother were found to be “deprived” and her maternal rights came to be terminated. We hold that while the deprived-status adjudication of the order was impervious to the mother’s attack on grounds of facial invalidity-launched two and a half years after the order had been made-the maternal rights’ termination portion was void on the face of the judgment roll and hence subject to vacation.

A petition to adjudicate the…