United States First Circuit

In a class action lawsuit on behalf of foster care children who are under the legal custody of Rhode Island's Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF), claiming that systematic deficiencies in the state's child welfare and foster care systems deprived the plaintiffs of their rights under the U.S. Constitution and several federal statutes, district court's judgment dismissing the complaint on the ground that the Next Friends lacked capacity to sue on behalf of plaintiffs is reversed where: 1) the district court erred in finding that the state appointed guardians ad litem or CASA advocates precluded plaintiffs from filing suit by a Next Friend; 2) under the circumstances of the case, Rule 17(c) allows federal courts discretion to appoint a Next Friend to represent the children in federal court; and 3) the proposed Next Friends are suited to represent the children in this case.

Appellate Information

• Decided 06/18/2010
• Published 06/18/2010

Judges

• TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge., Before TORRUELLA, Circuit Judge, SOUTER,Associate Justice, and STAHL, Circuit Judge.

Court

• United States First Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Susan Lambiase, Children's Rights, with whom Marcia Robinson Lowry, Shirim Nothenberg, Jessica Polansky, John W. Dineen, Vernon Winters, Weil, Gotshal & Manges LLP, and Jametta O. Alston, Rhode Island Office of the Child Advocate, were on brief for appellants., Erik S. Pitchal, Assistant Clinical Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School, for amici curiae the National Association of Counsel for Children, the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, Youth Law Center, the Hofstra Child Advocacy Clinic, the Legal Aid Society, the Children's Advocacy Institute, Children's Law Center of Massachusetts, Lawyers for Children, Prof. Don Duquette, the Rutgers Child Advocacy Center, Children's Law Center of Minnesota, the University of Miami School of Law's Children & Youth Law Clinic, National Center for Youth Law, First Star, and Prof. Michael Dale, in support of appellants., Andrew B. Prescott, Steven M. Richard, Nixon Peabody LLP, for amici curiae Rhode Island Affiliate, American Civil Liberties Union, in support of appellants and in favor of reversal., Seema A. Misra, Jennifer C. Arnett, Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP, for amici curiae The Field Center for Children's Policy Practice & Research at the University of Pennsylvania, in support of appellants and in support of reversal.


• For Appellees:
  
• Brenda D. Baum, Assistant Attorney General, with whom Patrick C. Lynch, Attorney General, and James R. Lee, Assistant Attorney General, Rhode Island Department of the Attorney General, were on brief for appellees.