Opinion ID: 1364184
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: jurisdiction

Text: (7) Appellant challenges the jurisdiction of the San Bernardino County Superior Court on the basis that, although Tyars has been hospitalized at Patton State Hospital in San Bernardino County since 1971, his parents reside in Los Angeles County. The controlling section, 6502, provides that A petition for the commitment of a mentally retarded person to the State Department of Health ... may be filed in the superior court of the county in which such person resides.... The term resides has received differing interpretations depending on the context and purpose of the statute in which it appears. (See Kirk v. Regents of University of California (1969) 273 Cal. App.2d 430, 434-435 [78 Cal. Rptr. 260].) The inquiry into the degree of mental retardation and dangerousness mandated by section 6507 strongly suggests that periodically, perhaps annually, treating physicians and other witnesses must be produced in court in order to testify as to the present mental condition and potential danger from the subject, who also should be present during such inquiry. Under such circumstances, to define the county in which such person resides as other than that in which he is hospitalized would seem to be both untenable and impractical. Furthermore, the interpretation which we herein indulge seems consistent with legislative intent, recently expressed in Health and Safety Code section 38450, that a habeas corpus hearing be held in the county of hospitalization for review and release of all admitted or committed developmentally disabled. In this connection, similar considerations of convenience and economy suggest a like result for those who may be mentally retarded.