Opinion ID: 1127387
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Construction of Family Code Section 7895

Text: Having reviewed the legislative history of Family Code section 7895, including this court's decision in Jacqueline H., supra, 21 Cal.3d 170, I find no evidence of a legislative intent to impose new restrictions on the previously established right of indigent parents to appointment of appellate counsel in a proceeding to free a minor child from the parent's custody and control, whether or not the child was a dependent child of the juvenile court, and whether or not the parent was the appellant. As noted earlier, a court should construe a statute to include persons not mentioned in the statute when there is no manifest reason for their exclusion and exclusion would result in injustice. ( Estate of Banerjee, supra, 21 Cal.3d 527, 539, fn. 10.) Applying this rule, I would construe Family Code section 7895 to require appointment of appellate counsel for all parents unable to afford counsel, whether or not the child is a dependent child of the juvenile court and whether or not the parent is the party who brought the appeal. There is no manifest reason to exclude parents of children who have not been made dependent children of the juvenile court. As we have seen, in adopting former section 237.7 of the Civil Code, the predecessor of Family Code section 7895, the Legislature intended merely to codify the holding of Jacqueline H., supra, 21 Cal.3d 170, and that holding recognized a right to appointment of appellate counsel for indigent parents appealing from judgments freeing their children from their custody and control, without regard to whether the children were juvenile court dependents. (See Appellate Defenders, Inc. v. Cheri S. (1995) 35 Cal. App.4th 1819 [42 Cal. Rptr.2d 195].) Nor is there any manifest reason to exclude from the class of indigent parents entitled to appointed counsel on appeal those parents who are respondents rather than appellants. In this respect, I agree with a published opinion of the Illinois Court of Appeal. That court was called upon to interpret a statute that, like Family Code section 7895, superficially appears to be aimed at the parents as appellants. ( In Interest of Harrison (1983) 120 Ill. App.3d 108, 112 [76 Ill.Dec. 7, 458 N.E.2d 146, 149].) The court declined to construe the statute in a way that would make entitlement to appointed counsel depend on which party brought the appeal because, in the court's words, it would be illogical and irrational to allow counsel for the parents as appellants but deny it as appellees. ( Ibid. )