KERN COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES v. SUPERIOR
Petitioner Kern County Department of Human Services (department) petitions for a writ of mandate after respondent Kern County Superior Court (juvenile court) refused to find the department properly noticed a parent of a jurisdictional/dispositional hearing on juvenile dependency supplemental and subsequent petitions (Welf. & Inst. Code, §§ 387 & 342).[1] The juvenile court believed the department had to serve the dependent child's father, who was living in Mexico, with notice pursuant to the Hague Convention on the Service Abroad of Judicial and Extrajudicial Documents in Civil and Commercial Matters, November 15, 1965, 20 U.S.T. 361 (Hague Service Convention or Convention). The juvenile court also continued the hearing to October 2010 for compliance with the Convention.
Having reviewed the matter, we grant the department's petition. We conclude the Hague Service Convention does not apply to supplemental and subsequent juvenile dependency proceedings in light of the juvenile court's ongoing dependency jurisdiction and provided it has previously found proper notice to the parent. Alternatively, assuming arguendo the Convention could apply to supplemental and subsequent juvenile dependency proceedings, we conclude any duty to serve notice under the Convention was discharged in this case by the father's general appearance in the juvenile court after the department filed its subsequent and supplemental petitions.
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