California Court of Appeal

A petition for a writ of mandate by plaintiff, commonly referred to in the media as the "Octomom", challenging the probate court's denial of her motion to dismiss a petition by an individual, a president of a nonprofit corporation, and the court's appointment of the Orange County Social Services Agency (SSA) to conduct an investigation of the family's finances is granted where: 1) the probate court erred by denying plaintiff's motion to dismiss the petition; 2) the individual seeking guardianship has no standing under Probate Code section 1510(a) as the petition seeking appointment of a guardian of the octopulets' estates should have been dismissed because he has neither pleaded ultimate facts demonstrating the plaintiff has engaged in any financial misconduct, nor alleged any other information warranting court investigation in the plaintiff's family's finances; and 3) the probate court's order for an investigation of the family's finances is vacated.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/08/2010
• Published 01/08/2010

Judges

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Law Offices of Arthur J. LaCilento, Arthur J. LaCilento; Jeffery J. Czech & Associates and Jeffery J. Czech for Petitioner., Deily Law Firm, John P. Deily, Cynthia V. Roehl, Michele Carmeli; Allred, Maroko & Goldberg, Gloria Allred and John S. West for Real Party in Interest., Reich, Adell & Cvitan, Laurence S. Zakson and J. David Sackman for American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO, as Amicus Curiae on behalf of Real Party in Interest.


• For Appellees:
  
• No appearance for Respondent.