Tehama County Department of Social Services v. S.J. (164 Cal. App. 4th 219, 2008)

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.

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.

The minors were ordered detained and placed in a foster home.

Grandmother requested the minors be placed with her. In May 2007, the juvenile court summarily denied her request.

On June 12, 2007, grandmother filed de facto parent requests (Judicial Council form JV-295) and de facto parent statements (Judicial Council form JV-296) on behalf of both minors. The de facto parent statements contained a series of questions. When asked about the amount of time she spent with the minors, grandmother responded that she transported them between their parents’ homes on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and weekends. When asked about the activities she did with the minors, she responded that she went to school open houses and took the minors to the fair, dances, potluck dinners, “fly ins,” and baseball games. She also stated that J.J. used her computer to research his homework. When asked about the kinds of information she had about the minors that others may not have, she said that the minors spoke to her about “almost everything, i.e. school, friends, and any problems,” and that J.J. told her “he can’t [keep] secrets from [her].” Grandmother executed both statements under penalty of perjury.

Grandmother also attached a letter from the minors’ first grade teacher to each statement, wherein the teacher wrote that she became acquainted with grandmother when the minors were students in her class. Grandmother checked on the minors’ academic progress. The minors told the teacher of their frequent after-school and weekend visits to grandmother’s home during which they assisted grandmother in caring for her animals. The minors often spoke of grandmother “with pride, happiness, and a sense of enjoyment, expectation, and responsibility.” The teacher viewed grandmother “as a stabilizing family member that anchored [the minors’] childhood lives” and “was shocked and saddened to learn that [grandmother] is not part of [the minors’] lives at the present time.” (Original boldface.) To her knowledge, grandmother “ha[d] always been an integral factor in [the minors’] well being.”

On June 14, 2007, the juvenile court checked the box on the de facto parent order (Judicial Council form JV-297) stating grandmother’s de facto parent request “is denied” and signed and dated the order.

DISCUSSION

I

Grandmother first contends that “[d]enial of [her] de facto parent status without a hearing was error as she made the necessary prima facie showing.”

“The concept of de facto parent has been judicially created to recognize limited rights in dependency cases for a person who has been found by the juvenile court to have assumed, on a day-to-day basis, the role of a parent, fulfilling the child’s physical and psychological needs.” (In re Leticia S. (2001) 92 Cal.App.4th 378, 381 [111 Cal.Rptr.2d 810].) “The purpose of conferring de facto parent status is to ‘ensure that all legitimate views, evidence and interests are considered in dispositional proceedings involving a dependent minor.’ [Citation.]” (In re Merrick V. (2004) 122 Cal.App.4th 235, 256 [19 Cal.Rptr.3d 490].)

“ ‘De facto parent’ means a person who has been found by the court to have assumed, on a day-to-day basis, the role of parent, fulfilling both the child’s physical and psychological needs for care and affection, and who has assumed that role for a substantial period.” (Cal. Rules of Court, rule 5.502(10).) “On a sufficient showing the court may recognize the child’s present or previous custodians as de facto parents and grant standing to participate as parties in disposition hearings and any hearing thereafter at which the status of the dependent child is at issue. The de facto parent may: [