Christina C. v. County of Orange CA4/3

C.C. and his mother, Christina C. (mother), appeal from the trial court’s summary judgment in favor of the County of Orange, its social services agency (SSA), and several of SSA’s social workers. Plaintiffs complain the trial court erred in concluding public employee immunity (Gov. Code, § 820.2) barred their claims arising from SSA’s decision to remove 10-year-old C.C. from mother’s care and place him with father, only to return C.C. to his mother when he fared poorly in father’s care. As we explain, plaintiffs’ claims for reversal have no merit, and we therefore affirm the judgment. In the published portion of the opinion, we explain that social workers do not ordinarily bear liability for a juvenile court’s erroneous delegation of authority and that the scope of Government Code section 820.21’s malice exception to social workers’ general immunity from lawsuits is limited.

I

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

Mother and father married in 1998, the year C.C. was bom, but rarely resided together and divorced in 2000 when C.C. was almost two years old. According to mother, she received primary physical custody of C.C. After a four-year period of contentious battles with…