Mahidol

We hold in this case that in a proceeding under the Family Code the superior court lacked in personam jurisdiction and subject matter jurisdiction to enforce provisions of the parties’ marital settlement agreement (MSA) requiring an adult disabled child living in Thailand to visit his father in California. We further hold the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction to enforce provisions of the MSA requiring the mother to encourage and implement visitation and give the father written updates on their son’s activities. The effect of those provisions is to control the son’s conduct, and the mother has no legal authority over him because he has reached 18 years of age. Accordingly, the mother may not be subject to the court’s contempt powers for any refusal or failure to sufficiently meet her affirmative duties under the MSA. The MSA purports to confer continuing subject matter jurisdiction on the trial court, but jurisdiction to adjudicate an adult child’s personal rights, ostensibly through a parent, cannot be conferred by consent, waiver or estoppel. We reverse the court’s order and remand the matter for its entry of a new order denying the father’s request for visitation…

I respectfully dissent.

I

At the outset I think it is helpful to consider more fully the very difficult circumstances confronting Ubolratana Mahidol, formerly Julie Jensen (Julie), and Peter L. Jensen (Peter) at the time they reached the agreements set forth in the marital settlement agreement (MSA). Shortly after the MSA was incorporated into the judgment, their son Poomi was evaluated at the H.E.L.P. Group/UCLA Neuropsychology Program. At the time of the evaluation, Poomi “[had] significant deficits in executive abilities. This means that in his everyday life he has little ability to independently monitor, self-evaluate, entertain and process information (both cognitively and socially), or to inhibit inappropriate thoughts and behaviors. This leaves him helplessly vulnerable in certain situations, and explains why he acts impulsively and inappropriately many times.”

The evaluators expressed concern that Poomi’s behaviors “could lead to criminal investigations which would be tragically unfortunate. Poomi has already experienced several situations that potentially could have gotten out *599 of hand (e.g., his recent incident on the roller coaster [when he lunged at another…