San Diego County Department of Social Services v. Sandra Z.

We granted review to decide (i) whether parents who plead “no contest” to a petition alleging their child falls within the jurisdiction of the juvenile court under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300, subdivision (e), 1 may subsequently assert on appeal that their conduct does not in fact fall within that section; and, if so, (ii) whether the act of starving a child to near death constitutes “severe physical abuse” as that term is defined in *1173 section 300(e). We conclude the parents’ claim is not cognizable on appeal, and thus decline to address the statutory interpretation issue. 2

I. Facts, Procedure, and Relevant Statutes

In the late afternoon of May 17, 1989, Sandra Z. noticed that the eyes of her six-month-old son, Troy, were rolled back. She telephoned from a neighbor’s home for emergency help. When paramedics arrived, Troy was not breathing. They transported him to the hospital, where the admitting doctors found him to have “no palpable blood pressure” and a body temperature of 89 degrees axillary. He was “flaccid,” and appeared “severely emaciated and foul-smelling.”

Sandra and John Z. (Troy’s father) explained to social workers that since his third…