Fresno County Department of Children & Family Services v. Della Z.

When a guardian, whose guardianship responsibilities were initiated as a permanent plan in a dependency proceeding, becomes incapable of providing custody for a minor, causing the change of custody to a new party under a permanent plan of long-term foster care, should the juvenile court terminate the guardianship because the guardianship is not permitted by law to coexist with the new permanent plan? We determine that such a termination is correct.

The juvenile court obtained dependency jurisdiction over four siblings, two boys and two girls, due to their parents’ failure to protect and provide for them. The children were all placed with their maternal grandmother, appellant Della Z. After reunification efforts with the parents failed, a permanent plan of legal guardianship with the grandmother was established. Dependency jurisdiction continued. The oldest child sexually assaulted his sister, the second oldest child, and was removed from the home of the grandmother. The misbehavior of the remaining three children resulted in their removal from grandmother’s care, as well, although the guardianship continued. The younger boy was returned to his grandmother’s care; the…