Court Opinion

ID: 9584524
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:49:30.753188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:08:12.762821
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent. It is conceded by the majority that a finding by the trial court is a jurisdictional requisite to depriving petitioner, Norman Etherington’s mother, of her parental right to his custody, he being a minor. There is no finding that the welfare of said minor requires that his mother be deprived of his custody. The majority opinion relies upon some oral remarks made by the trial judge at the conclusion of the hearing. Such remarks do not purport to be the findings of the court contemplated by the statute. It made its written findings in its order making Norman a ward of the court. It there stated, after reciting the fact of a hearing: “The court now finds the following facts, and each of them, to be true: That the said Norman Etherington is within the County of Nevada, State of California, and is a person under the age of twenty-one years, to wit: of the age of 17 years; That he did operate a motor vehicle in the residential district of Grass Valley at the speed of 56 miles an hour in a 25 mile an hour zone and did wilfully and unlawfully resist officer Townsend and did escape after apprehension. And did contribute to the delinquency of a minor female by concealing her from her parents, and is a person coming within the provisions of subdivision M of section 700 of said Welfare and Institutions Code.”
*870Not one word is said in said findings about the boy’s welfare requiring that his mother no longer have his custody or that she is not fit or capable of being his custodian. To rely upon the oral comments of the trial court as constituting the essential findings required by the statute, not only violates the statutory requirement that findings be in writing, but is clearly contrary to express intention of the court.
The Welfare and Institutions Code requires that the court find the facts (§ 739). It also provides that when the court shall adjudge the minor to be a ward of the court, its findings, and “All commitment . . . orders shall be in writing, and . . . signed by the judge . . .” (Welf. & Inst. Code, §735.) It is the general rule that findings must be in writing and signed by the judge (see Code Civ. Proc., § 632; Millard v. Legion of Honor, 81 Cal. 340 [22 P. 864]), and the oral opinion of the court cannot take the place of findings (Estate of Ingram, 99 Cal.App. 660 [279 P. 208]). The remarks of the court relied upon by the majority opinion are, at the most, no more than its oral opinion. It follows, therefore, that Norman’s detention is unlawful and he should be discharged from custody.
Sehauer, J., concurred.