S.J.
Tehama County Department of Social Services v. S.J.
Opinion
lead Opinion
Nicholson, J.
S.J. (grandmother) is the paternal grandmother of R.J. and JJ. (minors), who were adjudicated dependent children of the court. The juvenile court summarily denied grandmother’s request for de facto parent status. Grandmother appeals, contending (1) the juvenile court erred in denying her request without affording her an evidentiary hearing, and (2) the error violated her right to procedural due process under the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. (Welf. & Inst. Code, § 395.) Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Because the issue on appeal is limited, no extensive description of the dependency proceedings is needed.
*222 In March 2007, the Tehama County Department of Social Services filed Welfare and Institutions Code section 300 petitions on behalf of both minors, alleging that mother and her live-in boyfriend were often intoxicated, mother’s boyfriend forced RJ. to hug him and “touched her on her lower back,” mother punched J.J. in the face, and, on another occasion, father did nothing when mother repeatedly punched J.J. At the time the petitions were filed, J.J. was 12 and RJ. was nine.