Opinion ID: 1412109
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: THE SECTION 232, SUBDIVISION (a)(2) FINDING NEGLECT

Text: The court's second finding supporting the section 232 petition was that the children had been ... cruelly treated or neglected, by [their] parents ... under subdivision (a)(2) of section 232. Mrs. B. urges that the court's finding against her under the provision was unsupported by substantial evidence because this determination, like the probation officer's and the psychiatrist's testimony, was predicated solely on the acts which initially caused the wardship proceedings. (5) It is well settled that an order to free a child from parental custody and control must rest on present circumstances as well as past acts although such prior acts are evidence which may be considered by the court in deciding whether there is sufficient showing to justify the order. ( In re Morrow (1970) 9 Cal. App.3d 39, 54, 56 [88 Cal. Rptr. 142]; In re Zimmerman (1962) 206 Cal. App.2d 835, 844-845 [24 Cal. Rptr. 329]; In re Cardenas (1961) 194 Cal. App.2d 849, 855 [15 Cal. Rptr. 238]; In re Williams (1955) 133 Cal. App.2d 515 [284 P.2d 510].) In court proceedings held June 23, 1973, the department of public welfare's petition alleging Mr. B.'s physical and sexual abuse of the children and Mrs. B.'s failure to protect them, was granted and the children were declared dependent children of the court under then Welfare and Institutions Code section 600, subdivision (d), providing for such wardship where a minor's home ... is an unfit place for him by reason of neglect, cruelty, depravity or physical abuse.... (6) Under the principles of collateral estoppel, Mrs. B. may be precluded from denying the truth of the findings of the dependency proceeding that she failed to protect the children ( Bernhard v. Bank of America (1942) 19 Cal.2d 807; 807, 811, 813 [122 P.2d 892]); however, inquiry into the issue of cruelty or neglect [in a section 232 action] is not foreclosed by the order making the minor a dependent child of the juvenile court. In re Williams [1962] 133 Cal. App.2d 515 ... 518[.] ( In re Morrow (1970), supra, 9 Cal. App.3d 39 at p. 54; see also Louis Stores, Inc. v. Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (1962) 57 Cal.2d 749, 757 [22 Cal. Rptr. 14, 371 P.2d 758].) The court in In re Zimmerman, supra, 206 Cal. App.2d 835, 842, reviewed the distinction between a petition to declare children wards of the juvenile court (now dependent children) where the issue was actual custody and a proceeding to have the children declared free of the custody and control of the parent where the mother stood to lose all her parental rights; it held: We do not think that such proceedings to free a child from parental control have been invested by the Legislature with the rigid and inflexible character that appellants ascribe to them. It is clear to us that the court's consideration of the matter must proceed beyond the point of concluding merely that the mother was deprived of the custody of her child for moral depravity and that the period of a year has elapsed. The court in the instant proceedings is not finalizing an antecedent interlocutory judgment. (206 Cal. App.2d 843.) Mrs. B. was therefore entitled to have the circumstances leading to the [dependency] order[s] reviewed in the light of subsequent events, and with consideration of the nature of the order sought in [this proceeding].... It [was] reasonable to consider under subdivision (b) [of section 232] whether the conditions which gave rise to the ... neglect still persist[ed]. ( In re Morrow (1970) supra, 9 Cal. App.3d 39, 55-56; In re Susan M. (1975) 53 Cal. App.3d 300 [125 Cal. Rptr. 707]; In re Gano (1958) 160 Cal. App.2d 700 [325 P.2d 485].) The record indicates, however, that the trial judge did take Mrs. B.'s present circumstances into account before making his decision. At the hearing, in response to questions by counsel and the court, Mrs. B. testified to, and the probation officer's report corroborated, her efforts to resolve her personality problems, and to train for employment so she might, with the supportive services of the department of public welfare, regain custody. Such a showing, absent any contrary evidence by Mrs. B., suggests her current circumstances were weighed in the court's decision. Nevertheless, there was evidence to support the court's conclusion of neglect for four of the five children. The mandatory conditions of section 232, subdivision (a)(2) (a child made a ward of the court because of cruel or neglectful treatment whose parents have been deprived of custody for one year), were satisfied for these children. Moreover, although much of the testimony of the probation officer and the psychiatrist admits to being based on case files with only a brief interview or phone conversation, this evidence, and the evidence of Mrs. B.'s psychological difficulties in Washington, D.C., while insufficient to show mental illness, temper her showing of rehabilitation and capability to undertake the children's care. Indeed, petitioner's own testimony that she never feared for the safety of the children around their father, a convicted sex offender, may have properly convinced the trial court that Mrs. B. did not appreciate the necessity of keeping the children apart from Mr. B. and therefore could not be relied upon to live away from him if the children were returned to her care. Such issues of fact and credibility presented questions for the trial court ( In re Morrow, supra, 9 Cal.3d 39, 57; In re D.L.C. (1976), supra, 54 Cal. App.3d 840, 843), and we cannot say that there was not substantial evidence to support the order declaring the four older children free from the custody and control of their mother under section 232, subdivision (a)(2). (7) We hold, however, that no cruelty or neglect has been proven as to Carolyn B. who was born after the abuse which resulted in the dependency of the other children, and who was made a ward of the court under a different dependency subdivision. (Cf. In re J.T. (1974) 40 Cal. App.3d 633, 638 [115 Cal. Rptr. 553]; In re Baby Boy T., supra, 9 Cal. App.3d 815, 819.)