Katzoff

Petitioners Meta and Richard Katzoff seek review of an order of the San Francisco Superior Court allowing the Department of Public Social Services of the City and County of San Francisco to remove two-year-old Dimitri Wallace from their home, where they have been caring for him as a foster child.

Dimitri was born to Diane and Howard Wallace on December 26, 1973. Shortly after his birth, he exhibited symptoms of withdrawal from neonatal drug dependence. On January 16, 1974, he was admitted to a San Francisco hospital with a fracture of the left humerus, “analogous to the battered child syndrome.” Dimitri was placed in the Katzoff home in San Rafael in February 1974. He has remained with the Katzoffs, who recently moved to Petaluma, until the present time.

On March 15, 1974, Dimitri was declared a dependent child of the superior, court (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 600 et seq.) on the ground that his home was “unfit for him by reason of the neglect and physical abuse of his parents.” (See Welf. & Inst. Code, § 600, subd. (d).) The Wallaces then moved to Marin County, and the dependency petition was thereafter transferred to the Marin County Superior Court. On May 30, 1974, after…