Orange County Social Services Agency v. Melissa G.

I. Introduction

Mere weeks before oral argument in this case, the adoptive placement that had appeared to have been working out at the time of the .26 hearing 1 utterly failed. The prospective adoptive parents returned the two boys who are the subject of this appeal, Jayson, now going on 10, and Joseph, going on 7, to Orangewood Children’s Home only a few weeks ago.

The case forces us to examine the recurring problem in juvenile dependency law of postjudgment developments during the pendency of an appeal. (E.g., In re Elise K. (1982) 33 Cal.3d 138 [ 187 Cal.Rptr. 483 , 654 P.2d 253 ] [finding it appropriate to accept stipulation reversing order terminating parental custody and control based on postjudgment circumstances].) In this case, the postjudgment developments call into question one of the foundations on which a termination of parental rights must necessarily be based—that children who have had their ties to their parents legally severed will likely be adopted. (See § 366.26, subd. (c)(1); see In re Elise K., supra, 33 Cal.3d at p. 149 (conc. opn. of Bird, C. J.) [because termination proceedings required findings of adoptability, evidence should be taken of…