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.

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…