Petitions of the Department of Social Services to Dispense With Consent to Adoption

On October 21, 1985, a judge of the Middlesex Division of the Probate and Family Court Department entered a judgment dismissing petitions of the Department of Social Services (department) 1 to dispense with the need for parental consent for the adoption of two minor children. G. L. c. 210, § 3 (1984 ed.). The department appealed the decision to the Appeals Court. The Appeals Court, in an unpublished memorandum and order, see 22 Mass. App. Ct. 1113 (1986), remanded the case to permit the judge to examine the hospital records of the mother, Mrs. B, and to consider those records which are not…