In re N.G. CA2/4

DISCUSSION

On appeal, mother challenges the portion of the court’s February 22, 2023 order setting the terms of her visitation. Specifically, she argues that by failing to specify a minimum frequency or duration for visitation and leaving the scheduling at father’s discretion, the court delegated to father “the authority to deny Mother any visitation with N.G. whatsoever.” N.G. turned 18 in June 2024, while this appeal was pending. We therefore requested letter briefs from the parties

3 addressing whether the matter should be dismissed as moot.2 Mother filed a letter stating that she “understands this court’s concern and submits the decision on this issue to the court’s sound discretion.” Father filed a letter agreeing that the case was moot and dismissal was appropriate. A court is tasked with the duty “‘to decide actual controversies by a judgment which can be carried into effect, and not to give opinions upon moot questions or abstract propositions, or to declare principles or rules of law which cannot affect the matter in issue in the case before it.’” (In re D.P. (2023) 14 Cal.5th 266, 276.) A case becomes moot when a court cannot render effective relief. “[R]elief is…