Stanislaus County Department of Social Services v. Deborah C.

In this case, Deborah C. appeals certain juvenile court orders, including an order terminating her parental rights to her son, Matthew C. Prior to the Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26 hearing at which Deborah’s parental rights were terminated, the juvenile court issued an order terminating reunification services for Deborah, and setting the section 366.26 hearing. The issue we confront is whether findings subsumed within this earlier order are reviewable on appeal from the final order terminating Deborah’s parental rights. We conclude that such findings are reviewable on appeal, and thus reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeal.

*389 Facts

Matthew C. was born on March 14, 1989, addicted to heroin. He was taken into protective custody on March 16 suffering from neonatal narcotic withdrawal. On March 20, a dependency petition was filed, alleging that he came within Welfare and Institutions Code 1 section 300, subdivisions (a) (serious physical harm), (b) (failure to protect), and (g) (no provision for support), as a result of his mother Deborah C.’s habitual use of illegal substances. At the March 28 pretrial hearing, Deborah pled no contest to the…

I dissent from the majority’s conclusion that an order terminating reunification services is subject to review on appeal from a subsequent final judgment terminating parental rights.

The only effect of the majority’s opinion will be to delay the permanent placement of dependent children whose absent parents have failed to seek review by writ in a timely fashion. This case illustrates the point. Matthew was taken into protective custody two days after birth. When the superior court entered its order terminating reunification services he was a little over a year old. When the Court of Appeal filed its opinion he was almost three. Soon he will be five. How often must courts in these cases be reminded that *402 “every right afforded the parents, every reunification service ordered, every continuance, and especially every appeal taken is purchased at the expense of the person who is in law and morality the primary object of judicial solicitude, namely the child"? (In re Micah S. (1988) 198 Cal.App.3d 557, 565 [ 243 Cal.Rptr. 756 ] (conc. opn. of Brauer, J.).)

The majority acknowledges, as it must, that delay is undesirable. But having done so the majority then throws up its hands in…

I respectfully dissent.

In my view, the Court of Appeal correctly concluded that, under Welfare and Institutions Code section 366.26, subdivision (k), 1 an order of the juvenile court that terminates reunification services and directs that a section 366.26 selection and implementation hearing be held is not reviewable on appeal from a subsequent order terminating parental rights. The Court of Appeal’s conclusion in this regard is consistent with the rulings in a number *406 of prior Court of Appeal decisions (see, e.g., In re Amanda B. (1992) 3 Cal.App.4th 935 [ 4 Cal.Rptr.2d 922 ]; In re Taya C. (1991) 2 Cal.App.4th 1 [ 2 Cal.Rptr.2d 810 ]; In re Rebecca H. (1991) 227 Cal.App.3d 825 [ 278 Cal.Rptr. 185 ]) and, in my view, properly effectuates the legislative intent in enacting section 366.26(k). I fear that the majority’s contrary interpretation of the statute will thwart the overall legislative objective—evident in the numerous recent statutory reforms in the dependency area—of minimizing the delay inherent in the process of implementing a permanent plan for the placement of dependent children.

In interpreting section 366.26(k), the majority properly begins with the language…