Rodriguez

Petitioners seek a writ of mandate to compel respondent court to vacate its order dismissing petition for adoption and that peti tioners return the adoptive child to the Stanislaus County Welfare Department, Adoption Agency, and to direct respondent court to assume jurisdiction of the petition for adoption.

On July 31, 1969, the Stanislaus County Welfare Department, Adoption Agency, placed a minor female child born January 31, 1969, with petitioners for adoption. On February 10, 1971, a case worker for the agency informed petitioners that the placement of the child was being terminated and that the child had to be returned to the agency. The following day, February 11, petitioners, without approval of the agency, filed a petition for the adoption of said child, in the Stanislaus County Superior Court.

Real party in interest, Stanislaus County Welfare Department, Adoption Agency, filed a motion to dismiss the petition for adoption upon the grounds that the child placement had been terminated the day before the petition for adoption was filed, and that the petition was filed without the approval of the agency. The superior court dismissed the petition upon the ground it…