CALIFORNIA: In re Aurora P.
The Court of Appeal of California, First Appellate District, Division Five affirmed the juvenile court’s judgement terminating jurisdiction and dismissing the dependency proceeding involving appellant-minors, holding that appellant-minors “bore the burden of establishing by a preponderance of the evidence that conditions justifying initial assumption of dependency jurisdiction either still existed or were likely to exist if supervision were withdrawn.” Here, mother was reunified with her five children (appellant-minors) after they had been in foster care for approximately 18 months; appellee-agency provided in home family maintenance services to the family over the next 2 years. Appellee-agency petitioned to end dependency jurisdiction and close the case; appellant-minors opposed the petition and appealed the juvenile court’s judgment in favor of the agency. The appellate court first found that under Cal. Welf. & Inst. Code, §364(c), upon a motion filed by the agency, the juvenile court is required to terminate dependency jurisdiction unless the parent, guardian, child or agency establishes that the conditions justifying jurisdiction still exist. Second, the appellate court found in this case, appellant-minors were “the parties seeking to persuade the juvenile court to do something other than follow the statutory presumption favoring termination of jurisdiction. As such, they bore the burden to establish the existence of conditions justifying retention of dependency jurisdiction.” Here, the court found that appellant-minors failed to meet that burden as the evidence showed that mother was overwhelmed at times by raising five children as a single mother but she was in compliance with her case plan and the situation that had led to the agency’s involvement had been rectified. Therefore, the appellate court affirmed the juvenile court’s judgment terminating jurisdiction and dismissing the dependency proceeding. Cite: No. A143211; 2015 Cal. App. LEXIS 972 (Cal. Ct. App. Oct. 29, 2015) Link to Full Opinion