In Re Ba

Certified for Partial Publication. [*]

After a juvenile court referee declared two children dependents of the court, a juvenile court judge denied their father's applications for rehearing by signing and dating a denial order on the face of each application on the 20th day after the applications were filed. As to one child, no minute order was prepared by the clerk to document the denial of the rehearing application; as to the second child, a minute order was prepared but was dated more than 20 days after the rehearing application was filed. In the published portion of this opinion, we hold that the juvenile court judge's handwritten orders denying the applications for rehearing within 20 days of filing satisfied the timeliness requirements of Welfare and Institutions Code [1] section 252. We further hold the clerk's failure to prepare a minute order as to one child and the preparation of a minute order beyond the 20-day period as to the second child did not result in rehearing being granted as a matter of law. [2]

B.A. and Sandra A. (the children) were declared dependents of the court [3] under section 300 by a referee of the juvenile court not sitting as a…