California Court of Appeal

In this case, defendant-mother challenges the court's order sustaining jurisdiction over her three children. Defendant contends that the jurisdictional findings sustained against her under Welfare and Institutions Code section 300(a) and section 300(b)(1) are unsupported by substantial evidence because she took the proper actions to protect her children when their father assaulted her. The judgment is reversed with respect to the findings against defendant, where: 1) at the time of the assault, the mother and the children's father had been living apart for approximately ten months, and had no contact until the incident; 2) the mother's failure to foresee that the father would punch and slap her at the time of the incident was not unreasonable, as the only other time the father had assaulted the mother was five years prior when they were living together; 3) the mother took the proper actions immediately after the assault, having gone straight to the police station, reporting the assault, and obtaining a restraining order protecting herself and her children from the father; and 4) a sustained jurisdictional finding against the mother would penalize her for having brought the incident to the authorities' attention when such a response should be encouraged.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/13/2015
• Published 03/13/2015

Judges

• Lavin

Court

• California Court of Appeal

Counsel