Orange County Social Services Agency v. Melissa G.

Opinion

SILLS, P. J.

I. Introduction

Mere weeks before oral argument in this case, the adoptive placement that had appeared to have been working out at the time of the .26 hearing1 utterly failed. The prospective adoptive parents returned the two boys who are the subject of this appeal, Jayson, now going on 10, and Joseph, going on 7, to Orangewood Children’s Home only a few weeks ago.

The case forces us to examine the recurring problem in juvenile dependency law of postjudgment developments during the pendency of an appeal. (E.g., In re Elise K. (1982) 33 Cal.3d 138 [187 Cal.Rptr. 483, 654 P.2d…