Humboldt County Department of Health & Human Services v. Michael T.

*901 Opinion

This appeal from an order transferring a case from a California juvenile court to an Indian tribal court pursuant to the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 (ICWA), title 25 United States Code section 1901 et seq., raises a question of first impression in California—does the transfer of a juvenile dependency case from state court to tribal court pursuant to title 25 United States Code section 1911 (b) deprive the California courts of jurisdiction over the dependency case and thus preclude any appeal from the transfer order? We conclude that it does.

M.M. (Minor) appeals from an order of the Humboldt County Juvenile Court that transferred his dependency proceeding to the Karuk Tribal Court. The Humboldt County Juvenile Court transmitted its case files to the tribal court, the tribal court accepted jurisdiction, and it declared Minor a ward of that court. Because no party requested a stay of the transfer order prior to completion of the transfer, we hold that the California court lost all power to act in the matter upon completion of the transfer of the case. We further hold that as a California appellate court we can provide no effective relief to Minor, because we have…