In The Court of Appeals Ninth District of Texas at Beaumont ____________________ NO. 09-18-00433-CV ____________________ IN THE INTEREST OF J.R. __________________________________________________________________ On Appeal from the County Court at Law No. 3 Montgomery County, Texas Trial Cause No. 17-04-04946-CV _________________________________________________________________ MEMORANDUM OPINION The Department of Family and Protective Services (“the Department”) filed a petition to terminate the parental rights of J.R.’s alleged father, J.R. 1 Following a bench trial establishing that Father was residing in Mexico, the trial court granted the Department’s petition and terminated Father’s parental rights to J.R. Because the record shows that Father was never served with notice of the Department’s suit against him, we reverse the trial court’s judgment and remand the case for a new trial. 1 Because J.R. and her alleged father, the appellant, have the same initials, we will refer to the appellant as “Father.” 1 Procedural Background In April 2017, the Department filed a petition for termination in a suit affecting the parent-child relationship (SAPCR). In the SAPCR, the Department listed Father as the alleged father of J.R., requested that the trial court determine whether Father is the biological father of J.R., and sought to terminate Father’s parental rights. The Department listed “Mexico” as Father’s address but noted that the name and location of Father were unknown. The Department requested that “process be served at that address or in Court.” The Department maintained that it would make a diligent effort to locate Father and requested service of process if Father’s address became known. The record shows that in May 2017, FINDRS conducted an electronic search at the Department’s request, and the FINDRS Diligent Search Report indicated that Father reportedly resides in Mexico but could not be located. The FINDRS Report stated that if the absent parent is a citizen of a foreign country and is believed to be currently residing in their home country, the Department’s caseworker must contact the consulate of that country and request assistance in locating the absent parent. In June 2017, the Department filed a motion for substituted service of citation by posting, and the Department attached an affidavit regarding a due diligence search, in which an investigator averred that he had made a good faith effort to locate Father. 2 The trial court granted the Department’s motion for substituted service of citation by posting. In July 2017, the trial court found that Father had been served by citation by posting and appointed Father an attorney. However, the Department subsequently filed various Permanency Reports, in which the Department reported that Father resides in Mexico, his physical address was unknown, and he had not yet been served with service of process. In January 2018, Father’s appointed counsel filed a report stating that she had been unable to locate Father. In March 2018, the Department filed a first amended petition, and in October 2018, the trial court conducted a bench trial, during which the Department maintained that Father had been served by posting. During the trial, Jeff Sermons, a case worker ...
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