In Re William C.

70 Cal. App. 3d 570, 138 Cal. Rptr. 843
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJune 9, 1977
Docket29384
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 70 Cal. App. 3d 570 (In Re William C.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In Re William C., 70 Cal. App. 3d 570, 138 Cal. Rptr. 843 (Cal. Ct. App. 1977).

Opinion

70 Cal.App.3d 570 (1977)
138 Cal. Rptr. 843

In re WILLIAM C., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court Law.
KENNETH F. FARE, as Acting Chief Probation Officer, etc., Plaintiff and Respondent,
v.
WILLIAM C., Defendant and Appellant.

Docket No. 29384.

Court of Appeals of California, Second District, Division Five.

June 9, 1977.

*572 COUNSEL

Paul Arthur Turner, under appointment by the Court of Appeal, for Defendant and Appellant.

Evelle J. Younger, Attorney General, Jack R. Winkler, Chief Assistant Attorney General, S. Clark Moore, Assistant Attorney General, Shunji Asari and Mark Alan Hart, Deputy Attorneys General, for Plaintiff and Respondent.

*573 OPINION

ASHBY, J.

On May 18, 1976, a juvenile court referee found appellant to be a person described by Welfare and Institutions Code section 602 in that he committed burglary (Pen. Code, § 459). On May 19 appellant applied for a rehearing of the adjudication proceedings by a judge (former Welf. & Inst. Code, § 558, now § 252). On June 2 the referee ordered appellant removed from the custody of his parents for camp community placement. The record does not clearly indicate the date on which this order was approved by a judge (former Welf. & Inst. Code, § 555, now § 249). On June 8 the application for rehearing of the adjudication was denied. The notice of appeal, in propria persona, "from the orders of the Juvenile Court sustaining the petition of May 4, 1976, declaring him a ward of the Court, and denying his application for a rehearing" was filed on August 9.

TIMELINESS OF APPEAL

(1a) The Attorney General contends the notice of appeal was not timely filed and that the appeal should be dismissed. The notice of appeal was filed within 60 days[1] of the order denying rehearing, but was filed more than 60 days after the adjudication and disposition orders. In order to analyze respondent's contention, we undertake a review of the current law on this subject. At the outset we caution, however, that current law will be modified after July 1, 1977, as discussed in a later section of this opinion, by specific court rules adopted by the Judicial Council.

In the absence of specific rules governing juvenile appeals, the courts have borrowed from rule 2, California Rules of Court, governing civil appeals, and held that the time limit in which to appeal is 60 days from the applicable order. (In re DeBaca, 197 Cal. App.2d 672, 675 [17 Cal. Rptr. 554]; In re Gary R., 56 Cal. App.3d 850, 852 [129 Cal. Rptr. 26].) Several cases have suggested that this 60-day time period does not commence to run until the order denying rehearing. (See In re Richard D., 23 Cal. App.3d 592, 594, fn. 1 [100 Cal. Rptr. 351]; In re J.R., 5 Cal. App.3d 597, 601 [85 Cal. Rptr. 396]; In re Gary R., supra.)[2]

*574 Respondent argues that there is no sound reason for this rule, and that the time should start running either with the adjudication order or the disposition order. We disagree.

Welfare and Institutions Code section 800 provides in pertinent part: "A judgment or decree of a juvenile court or final order of a referee which becomes effective without approval of a judge of the juvenile court assuming jurisdiction and declaring any person to be a person described in Section 601 or 602, ... may be appealed from in the same manner as any final judgment, and any subsequent order may be appealed from as from an order after judgment." In In re Melvin S., 59 Cal. App.3d 898, 900 [130 Cal. Rptr. 844], the court held that the jurisdictional order was in the nature of an intermediate order which is not separately appealable, and that the appeal lies from the dispositional order, which is more analogous to a judgment; however, the jurisdictional order is reviewable on the appeal from the dispositional order.[3]

Welfare and Institutions Code section 800 draws a distinction between a "judgment or decree of the juvenile court" and a "final order of a referee which becomes effective without approval of a judge of the juvenile court...." In the case of a dispositional order by a referee which becomes effective without approval of a judge, the rule that the time period in which to appeal does not commence until the order denying rehearing is clearly correct. The reason is that section 800 refers only to a "final" order of a referee which becomes effective without approval of a judge. When there has been a timely application for a rehearing, the referee's order is not final, so as to be appealable, until the application for rehearing is denied by a judge. (Former Welf. & Inst. *575 Code, § 556, now § 250; see In re Edgar M., 14 Cal.3d 727, 739-740, fn. 11 [122 Cal. Rptr. 574, 537 P.2d 406].) It is the order denying rehearing which gives finality to the referee's order, so as to render the referee's order appealable.

In the instant case, however, the referee's dispositional order was to remove the minor from the custody of his parents for camp community placement, an order which does not "become effective" without approval of a judge. (Former Welf. & Inst. Code, § 555, now § 249; see also former § 557, now § 251.) Where the referee's order is not one which becomes effective without approval of a judge, the appeal under section 800 must be from "[a] judgment or decree of a juvenile court...." (In re Melvin S., supra, 59 Cal. App.3d 898, 901.) The only orders by a judge of the juvenile court in this case were the order approving removal of the minor from the custody of his parents and the order denying rehearing. In these circumstances we think the time period in which to appeal should likewise commence with the order denying rehearing, not at an earlier time as contended by respondent.

The nature of a judge's "approval" pursuant to former section 555 of a referee's order removing the minor from the custody of his parents was explained in In re Dale S., 10 Cal. App.3d 952, 956-957 [89 Cal. Rptr. 499]: "[T]he approval of a referee's order under section 555 is a safeguard against summary removal of the child from the custody of his parent or guardian. Approval of the order is not grounded upon a rehearing on the merits, it is merely an evaluation of the custody aspect of the order, keeping in mind that an application for a rehearing may be filed by a parent or guardian of the child. (§ 558.) Otherwise the referee's order would become effective immediately, under section 556, and the child would be subjected to the psychological trauma of a change of custody which might be reversed if a rehearing is granted." (Id., at p. 956.) In In re Edgar M., supra, 14 Cal.3d 727, 737-738, our Supreme Court cited Dale S. and stated: "Approval under section 555 is not intended as a substitute for rehearing proceedings." Thus under Dale S., the "approval" by a judge of the dispositional order is only conditional where there has been a timely application for rehearing.

In much the same way that an order denying rehearing gives the necessary finality to a referee's order which becomes effective without approval of a judge, the order denying rehearing also supplies the necessary finality to the judge's approval of disposition under section 555. Thus we think it appropriate in both cases that, although the appeal *576 lies from the dispositional order, the time

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

In re Z.P. CA4/2
California Court of Appeal, 2024
In re H.H. CA4/2
California Court of Appeal, 2015
In re L.W. CA3
California Court of Appeal, 2013
People v. MacIoce
197 Cal. App. 3d 262 (California Court of Appeal, 1987)
In Re Eric B.
189 Cal. App. 3d 996 (California Court of Appeal, 1987)
Contra Costa County Department v. Ted B.
189 Cal. App. 3d 996 (California Court of Appeal, 1987)
In Re Gerald B.
105 Cal. App. 3d 119 (California Court of Appeal, 1980)
People v. Gerald B.
105 Cal. App. 3d 119 (California Court of Appeal, 1980)
Fare v. Ernest M.
71 Cal. App. 3d 890 (California Court of Appeal, 1977)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
70 Cal. App. 3d 570, 138 Cal. Rptr. 843, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-william-c-calctapp-1977.